NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - What initially appeared to be another mass shooting at a movie theater ended up being an attack by a disturbed homeless man who wasn't armed with a real gun and was eventually shot and killed by police.
Vincente David Montano, 29, bought a ticket for "Mad Max: Fury Road" at a theater in a middle-class community in southern Nashville on Wednesday and entered with pepper spray, an airsoft pellet gun and an ax, Metro Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said.
Some of the theatergoers in the audience ran outside and alerted officers who had responded to a vehicle crash nearby, police said in a news release issued late Wednesday.
South Precinct Officer Jonathan Frith, a six-year veteran, was the first officer to encounter Montano, police said. Montano pointed his pellet gun at Frith and pulled the trigger, prompting Frith to fire one round from his patrol rifle in self-defense, officials said. Frith then backed out of the theater while keeping Montano contained inside as SWAT officers responded.
At that point, Montano began to use the pepper spray, and officers said they encountered a cloud of it as they entered to take Montano into custody. Montano fired his pellet gun again and four SWAT members fired back, police said.
"It's important to note that during Montano's interaction with the SWAT team, members, he had multiple and continued opportunities to end the situation. He chose not to," Aaron said.
Montano attempted to flee out the rear door of the theater and as he emerged with ax in hand and started toward officers, five of them opened fire, police said. Montano was struck and killed.
Only Montano was killed. One man was cut on the shoulder, evidently by the ax Montano carried. That man, his wife and their daughter were treated for pepper spray, Aaron said.
He also Montano had a canister of propane, lighter fluid and a lighter and may have intended on setting off an explosive device. But he said Montano had made a gash on the canister, rendering it useless.
Aaron said police had not uncovered a motive, but he said Montano had been committed for psychiatric treatment at least four times, twice in 2004 and twice in 2007. It wasn't immediately clear why he had been committed or if that commitment was involuntary.
"This individual has had significant psychiatric or psychological issues," Aaron said.
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, police reports from 2004 show Montano's long history of mental problems, with his mother telling officers in one case he heard voices telling him to do things.
His mother, Denise Pruett, called police for help at least twice in 2004. In February of that year, Denise Pruett told officers he was destructive and broke a coffee table and jewelry box. Police took Montano to a mental hospital for an evaluation, though the results are unclear.
Then, just two days before the theater attack, Pruett contacted Murfreesboro police and said Montano was missing. She told police her son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in April 2006, according to the missing person report.
Nashville police say Montano had been committed at least three times while living in Murfreesboro; he was reported to have lived in a number of states over the years, including Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Illinois and Florida; and he was most recently believed to be homeless.
Nashville police also noted Montano had been arrested in Murfreesboro in 2004 for assault and resisting arrest.
As more details of the attack and Montano's troubled past emerged, it began to appear less likely he intended to inflict mass casualties such as those attempted by a theater shooter recently in Louisiana and carried out two years ago by a shooter in Colorado.
Instead of a packed house showing a new film, Montano waged his attack in a theater where only seven others were present at midday, watching a movie that had already been out for some time. He was armed with a pellet gun, not a weapon with bullets, and chose to use pepper spray, not the gun, when he began his assault. One of Montano's two backpacks was detonated and found to contain a fake bomb, Aaron said. The other backpack contained nothing harmful, according to police.
Aaron said the responding officer thought the gun was real and he heard popping noises when Montano pulled the trigger, prompting him to fire his service weapon.
"The gun is a very realistic looking gun that strongly resembles a semiautomatic pistol," Aaron said. "If someone confronted you with it, you would think it was a real pistol."