South San Francisco officer cleared in fatal shooting of man in lengthy gunfight with police

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO — A police officer has been cleared of criminal liability in the fatal April shooting of a heavily armed man who threatened and shot at his neighbors — wounding one of them — and then proceeded to engage in a nearly half-hour gunbattle with police in which he fired dozens of rounds, authorities said.

Miraculously, only the gunman, 60-year-old Brian Joseph Montana, died in the violent April 28 episode on Arroyo Drive that began with Montana reportedly threatening to kill his next-door neighbors, seemingly over lawn trimmings that blew into his yard. Montana attained some fame in the early- to mid-1980s as a guitarist for the pioneering death metal band Possessed.

A report on the shooting produced by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, released Thursday, found no grounds for criminal charges against South San Francisco police Officer Jeffrey Lee, who fired the fatal shot that killed Montana. In a letter to the police department describing his office’s analysis, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe praised Lee’s actions amid a harrowing scene.

“Officer Lee’s willingness to expose himself to repeated gunshots and his expert marksmanship put an end to the danger and may have saved lives of innocent victims,” Wagstaffe wrote.

He added that during the gunbattle in which Montana fired off 63 shots, just two officers returned fire, which he held up as “great restraint on the part of the officers in the face of extreme danger.”

The report states that just before 6 p.m. on April 28, Montana was heard revving his car engine in his driveway for 30 minutes, apparently upset at his neighbors for letting their lawn scraps blow into his yard. When a man living in the adjacent home walked over to talk, Montana pointed a handgun at him, and the neighbor’s wife called 911 while he retreated.

Montana reportedly told them “I am going to kill you and your family” before walking toward the neighbors’ house, carrying a rifle and having two handguns tucked into his waistband, and trying to force his way into the residence. Soon after, Montana shot through the front door, with one of the rounds grazing the man in the buttocks.

Two responding police officers, one of whom ordered an armored van to evacuate the neighbors to safety, parked near Montana’s home and Montana fired three shots at them, forcing them to take cover behind a patrol vehicle. Lee and several other officers then arrived, and were immediately pinned down by Montana’s gunfire, with the shooting report describing “the sound of bullets whizzing by, striking patrol vehicles and skipping off the ground.”

Because they were taking cover from heavy gunfire, the police officers had to launch a drone to get a direct line of sight of Montana, the report stated. Officers called out to Montana to drop his weapon, only to be met with more bullets, with volleys of eight, 14 and eight shots in short succession. During those bursts, Corporal Daniel Zhang, one of the first two officers to respond to the scene, fired seven shots at Montana.

About 20 minutes into the clash, Lee drove an armored van close to where Montana was shielded by cars in his driveway. Capt. Ken Chetcuti, working from a command post set up at a nearby supermarket, gave the order to his officers, “If you have a clear shot, take him.”

The report states that at 6:20 p.m., Lee fired three rounds from his police-issued AR-15 rifle from 75 yards away, with one of the bullets hitting Montana in the torso, causing him to drop to the ground. Soon after, the reported states that “Montana placed his shotgun on the ground and rolled over onto his back,” and then “tried to aim his shotgun toward the officers” and racked it several times, and “also pulled out a handgun from his waistband and tried to get himself in a seated position.”

But Montana instead fell on his back; uncertain whether he was still a threat, police fired bean bags and pepper balls at him to elicit a reaction. About 30 minutes after Lee’s shot, officers approached where Montana was laying and he was pronounced dead.

Police recovered an array of guns located within Montana’s reach, some loaded and some unloaded, the report states. The loaded weapons included a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun, a Ruger 9mm semi-automatic handgun, and a Kimber .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine. One of the unloaded guns was a Springfield Armory M1A .308 caliber rifle.

An autopsy found that Montana had consumed prescription drugs and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.153%, nearly twice the legal limit for driving.

Given all of the direct deadly threats that the officers faced, Wagstaffe concluded that Lee’s actions were “objectively reasonable based on the facts and circumstances known to him at the time.”