UPDATED: Police have confirmed that one suspect is dead after a movie-theater shooting outside Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday. The man reportedly entered a screening of “Mad Max: Fury Road” carrying an airsoft pistol and a hatchet and began to attack the audience. One 58-year-old man was slashed with the hatchet, resulting in a superficial wound on his shoulder, said Nashville fire department spokesman Brian Hass. Two women, ages 17 and 53, were treated for pepper-spray exposure, along with the man who was cut. No one aside from the suspect reportedly died in the attack. The suspect has been confirmed to be a local 29-year-old white male named Vincente Montano. Police previously said he was 51 years old, but Metropolitan Nashville police chief Steve Anderson corrected the age later on Wednesday.
Police reportedly arrived within five minutes of the attack at the Carmike 8 Cinemas in Antioch, a suburban community of Nashville. The assailant escaped to the back of the theater, where he opened fire on police officers, and authorities returned fire. Montano was killed on the scene. Wearing a surgical mask, the man unleashed a thick fog of pepper spray in theater, said Nashville metro police spokesman Don Aaron. A bomb squad detonated a satchel and backpack the suspect was carrying, as authorities were “uncomfortable” with what they found in the bags. A fake bomb was found in one bag. The Metropolitan Nashville police tweeted a photo of the hatchet later on Wednesday.
A rep from the Nashville police department confirmed that law enforcement received a call at 1:13 p.m. CT of a person entering the theater with a weapon. The suspect was killed at 1:54 p.m. CT. Last month, three people were killed, including the assailant, at a movie theater shooting in Lafayette, La. The deadly shooting happened during a screening of Amy Schumer’s “Trainwreck,” prompting the actress to call for stricter gun laws at a press conference earlier this week alongside her cousin, Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.). Earlier this week, a jury determined that Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooter James Holmes was eligible for the death penalty after killing 12 people in 2012.