Nashville assailant may have wanted to blow up cinema: police

[August 07, 2015]  By Tim Ghianni
 
 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - The hatchet-wielding man shot by police after an attack on a Nashville-area movie theater on Wednesday had a propane canister and lighter fluid on him that he may have wanted to use to set off an explosion, police said on Thursday.

The gunman, Vincente Montano, 29, a transient with a history of mental illness, refused requests from police to surrender. He was fatally shot after a standoff at the theater that had been holding an afternoon showing of "Mad Max: Fury Road" before a small crowd.

"There is a great possibility that he intended on using this propane canister as some type of explosive," said police spokesman Don Aaron, adding it was gashed with the hatchet, which let the gas escape.

Three people were injured when Montano doused the theater with pepper spray, including one man who also suffered a superficial hatchet wound from the assailant.

The attack came about two weeks after a shooting in Louisiana where two people were killed and nine others wounded before the gunman took his own life, and about three years after 12 people were slain and dozens wounded by a gunman in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises."

The recent incidents have rekindled worries about theaters becoming targets of those intent on mass-casualty violence.

After patrons left the Nashville theater, SWAT officers confronted Montano, who had taken cover and was throwing objects including canisters of pepper spray, at police who had trained their weapons on him.

The assailant, still holding a hatchet, took a back exit out of the theater and was fatally shot by police who thought he may have been trying to set off a bomb in a bag on his body.

The movie incident, along with a shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee in mid-July that left four U.S. Marines, a Navy sailor and the gunman dead, renewed calls among some Republican state lawmakers to make it easier to carry guns in more places.

State Representative Tilman Goins said allowing law-abiding citizens to carry guns such as pistols without the need for permits would improve safety, a view contested by gun-control advocates.

"The theater incident in Antioch was a tragedy in the hearts of the people affected, but it's important to note that no gun (control) laws would have prevented that," Goins said.

(Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Trott and Sandra Maler)

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