US rock musician Brian Montana dies in shootout with police
A Bay Area-based staple of the death metal music genre was gunned down by police in South San Francisco Monday, after a dispute with a neighbour over tree clippings turned violent.
Possessed guitar player Brian Montana, 60, was fatally shot by authorities after he brandished a weapon toward his neighbour, authorities with the South San Francisco Police Department confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle Thursday.
On its Instagram Stories on Wednesday, the group Possessed shared an image of the late musician with the caption, ‘Rest in Peace Brian Montana.’ (The outlet Consequence identified the musician as the man on the left in the photo the band posted as tribute.)
Montana fired multiple times at officers using a handgun, shotgun, and rifle, police said of the incident. Officers used patrol cars as cover and returned fire. The suspect was struck and ultimately pronounced deceased at the scene.’
Montana used three firearms to shoot at authorities for about 30 minutes, officials said, according to CBS Bay Area.
Authorities told CBS they reported to the 300 block of Arroyo Drive at around 6 p.m. local time after they received a report of an armed man threatening a neighbour.
Montana, who was an early member of the musical group, was described by the newspaper as being ‘enraged’ over debris from a nearby tree, triggering the deadly exchange, law enforcement told the newspaper.
Police told the station they observed a man – later identified as Montana – firing a weapon at someone in a home.
Behind a parked vehicle
The shooter, later identified as Montana, was subsequently seen heading to a driveway in the area and camping out behind a parked vehicle and landscaping, police said.
Montana then began firing a trio of weapons – a handgun, shotgun and rifle – at police, according to officials.
Police told the station that Montana was unresponsive and pronounced dead after receiving first aid.
Another resident in the neighbourhood was injured in the incident, but is expected to survive, officials said. No police officers were hurt in the incident.
The death metal staple Possessed has more than 195,000 Instagram followers and is currently touring in support of their album Revelations of Oblivion, according to their social media page.
Daily Mail has reached out to the band via its social media for further comment on Montana’s death.
The police officers who fired their weapons were placed on administrative leave to adhere to official protocols, officials said.
More information, including video and audio of the deadly incident, was expected to be released to the public in the future.
Under investigation
Police told the newspaper that ‘the incident is under investigation with the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.’
Montana had been a guitarist for an earlier incarnation of the band, which rose through the ranks with other notable names such as Metallica, Death Angel and Testament.
Montana is the second band member of Possessed to have been shot: Singer Jeff Becerra was tragically left paralysed from the waist down after he was shot in 1989.
Becerra was wounded after he was shot by a pair of armed robbers when he went out to purchase a pack of cigarettes, Becerra told The Underground Metal Gamer in 2019, according to Blabbermouth.
The musician, in an April 2019 interview with the outlet, went into detail on the tragic incident that changed his life.
‘It wasn’t so much of an accident – I got shot by two different guns in a robbery,’ Becerra said. ‘I was doing concrete construction.’
