Former member of iconic US metal band Possessed shot dead

One of the first members of a legendary US band has been shot dead during a shootout with police in San Francisco.

A former member of iconic US deathmetal band Possessed has been killed by police marking the second time one of the band’s musicians has been shot.

Brian Joseph Montana, 60, was fatally shot in San Francisco by police on Monday, reportedly due to an argument about tree trimmings.

The neighbour sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Police were called around 5.50pm local time following a disturbance in which it’s claimed Montana was threatening his neighbour with a firearm.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the fracas stemmed due to a disagreement over tree clippings from a neighbour’s garden.

CBS San Francisco said that when police arrived at the home in the suburb of South San Francisco they saw a man shooting into a home that someone had just run inside of.

The man was then seen running into a home that was occupied, before moving to a driveway and hiding behind several parked vehicles.

“Over the next 25 minutes, the suspect armed himself with three different types of firearms (handgun, shotgun, and rifle) and fired at officers from different locations within the driveway,” police said in a statement.

Brian Montano was one of the first members of iconic deathmetal band Possessed. Picture: Twitter.

Officers used their vehicles as cover and returned fire, striking Montana. Police said that measures were made to save the musician’s life, however he succumbed to his injuries on-scene and died.

Montana joined Possessed in 1983 after seeing an ad for a guitarist that founding members Mike Torrao and Mike Sus put up in the Bay Area. They struck up a friendship and went on to record a demo album called Death Metal in ‘84. However, things didn’t work out and Montana left later that year.

“After I joined the band, yes, we hung out together a lot. I was the original guitarist besides Torrao, so when I joined we were still just a garage band; didn’t even have our first gig yet. “After we started playing the clubs, we bonded more and had a lot more fun with it,” Montana told Voices From the Darkside in an interview.

Two band members of Possessed have now been shot, one fatally with the other left paralysed. Picture: Supplied.

“I left the band because Torrao had a terrible attitude problem and wouldn’t stop ragging at me. He was like some senile old lady that just wouldn’t shut up. He had a problem with my image. He didn’t think I was evil enough or something. He was always ragging on me to wear an upside down crucifix and be satanic.”

Montana isn’t the first member of the legendary group, who are known as the father’s of deathmetal, to have been shot.

Vocalist Jeff Becerra was left paralysed after being shot by two armed robbers in 1989. Possessed had broken up, and the vocalist was working a construction job when the incident took place.

“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. 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,” he said in a 2019 interview.

Originally published as Former member of iconic US metal band Possessed shot dead