Heavy metal guitarist dies during shootout with police
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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 neighbor over tree clippings turned violent.

Possessed guitar player Brian Montana, 60, was fatally shot by authorities after he brandished a weapon toward his neighbor, authorities with the South San Francisco Police Department told the San Francisco Chronicle

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 different firearms to shoot at authorities for about  30 minutes, , officials said, according to CBS Bay Area

Authorities told CBS that the 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 neighbor.   

On its Instagram Stories Wednesday, the group 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.

Possessed guitar player Brian Montana , 60, (left) was fatally shot by authorities after he brandished a weapon toward his neighbor, authorities with the South San Francisco Police Department told the San Francisco Chronicle. The band paid memorial to him on their Instagram

Possessed guitar player Brian Montana , 60, (left) was fatally shot by authorities after he brandished a weapon toward his neighbor, authorities with the South San Francisco Police Department told the San Francisco Chronicle. The band paid memorial to him on their Instagram

San Francisco authorities sealed off the street with caution tape after the Monday shooting

San Francisco authorities sealed off the street with caution tape after the Monday shooting 

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. Dailymail.com has reached out to the band via its social media for further comment on Montana’s death. 

Police told the station they observed a man – later identified as Montana – firing a weapon at someone in a home. 

The shooter, later identified as Montana, was subsequently seen headed 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 authorities, according to officials. 

Police told the station Montana was unresponsive and pronounced dead after receiving first aid. 

Another resident in the neighborhood was injured in the incident, but expected to survive, officials said. No police were hurt in the incident.

The police officers who fired their weapons were placed on administrative leave in adhering to official protocols, officials said. 

More information, including video and audio of the deadly incident, were expected to be released to the public in the future, authorities said. 

The band recently took to Instagram to hearken a show in Santiago, Chile

The band recently took to Instagram to hearken a show in Santiago, Chile

Authorities told CBS that the 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 neighbor

Authorities told CBS that the 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 neighbor 

Montana is the second band member with Possessed to have been shot.

Montana is the second band member with Possessed to have been shot.

Montana had been a guitarist for an earlier incarnation of the band, who 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 paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot in 1989 by two robbers after he went out to purchase a pack of cigarettes, the music outlet Loudwire reported.

‘We scuffled, there was no way out of it and I ended up getting shot a couple of times – the first guy pushed a 9-millimeter to my chest,’ Becerra told The Underground Metal Gamer in 2019, according to Blabbermouth. 

Becerra said, ‘It broke through the ribs and shattered the lungs and stuck on in the spine, so I still have a 9-millimeter slug stuck on the vertebrate T3.’

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