A man who was shot dead by police after terrorising movie-goers at a theatrical screening of Mad Max: Fury Road in Nashville, Tennessee yesterday has been identified as Vincente Montano.

He was killed by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s SWAT team on Wednesday afternoon (August 5th) at the Carmike Hickory 8 Theater in Antioch in the southeast of the city, after unleashing pepper spray inside the auditorium and attacked a family with a hatchet, injuring one man. In the middle of the day, there were just seven other patrons inside at the time.

Mad Max Fury RoadThis incident occurred during a screening of 'Mad Max: Fury Road'

The caller who dialled 911 to raise the alarm reportedly said to dispatchers: “This guy, this shady looking guy, stood up with like two bags and walked towards the back of the theater and he pulled out like a hatchet and started attacking this family. Then he pulled out a gun and we all ran out of the theater.”

According to a Metropolitan Nashville P.D. spokesman, one officer is believed to have engaged Montano before the SWAT team arrived, who fired at him before the shooter produced a realistic looking “airsoft pistol” and pulled the trigger. At this point, he filled the theater with pepper spray before the SWAT team arrived to take over.

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After several minutes of standing off and firing, Montano eventually emerged from the theatre via a back door with the hatchet in his hand. He then started towards more officers that were surrounding the area, who shot and killed him.

The injured man identified himself only as Steven, and said that he was inside the theatre with his wife and daughter. “I am very, very grateful that no one else got injured here today,” he said.

Montano is believed to have had a history of mental health problems, according to CNN. “This individual has had significant psychiatric or psychological issues. He had been committed four times, twice in 2004 and twice in 2007.” He is also believed to have been charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer in an incident in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles outside Nashville, in 2004.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson struck a downbeat note when summarising the event in a statement. “This may be what we call the new normal,” he said, referring to the Lafayette, Louisiana cinema shooting just three weeks ago. “We can't just shut down America. We can't say we're not going to theaters. We can't say we're not going to church. We carry on.”

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