Nashville assailant may have wanted to blow up cinema: police

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 cannister 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 numerous requests from police to surrender. He was fatally shot after a standoff with police at the theater that has been holding an afternoon showing of "Mad Max: Fury Road" before a small crowd. "His motive for all this is yet to be determined," said police spokesman Don Aaron. 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 taking his own life and about three years after 12 people were slain and dozens wounded by a gunman at a cinema 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 were in a standoff with Montano, who had taken cover and was throwing objects including canisters of pepper spray, at police who had trained their weapons on him, Aaron said. He also had a propane canister that he likely intended to use as an explosive, but it was gashed with the hatchet, which let the gas escape. 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. (Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Trott and Sandra Maler)