A sheriff’s deputy shot and wounded a man Wednesday who had been taken into custody last week after running from U.S. marshals while stabbing himself in the neck, authorities said.
Kyle Montgomery, 22, was shot northwest of Tucson just after 2 p.m. near West Najo Lane and North Sandario Road, a rural area near West Picture Rocks Road.
Montgomery is facing charges of possession of a weapon by a prohibited possessor and possesion of a prohibited weapon. He has been booked in the Pima County jail.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who went to the scene after the shooting, said Montgomery was armed with a modified short-barrel rifle, and one deputy “perceived a serious threat” and shot him.
The deputy was not injured, and neither were two other deputies who also tracked Montgomery after he ran from a Family Dollar store in the area, said Deputy Courtney Rodriguez, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.
Deputies responded to the area after receiving a report of a suspicious man at the Family Dollar at 6641 N. Sandario Road. When deputies arrived at the store the suspect ran, Rodriguez said.
The man hid in the bushes and deputies repeatedly ordered him to come out.
The man took out “what appeared to be some weapon, and that is when the deputy fired,” said Rodriguez.
Montgomery, who was shot in the shoulder, was taken to Banner-University Medical Center, with non-life-threatening injuries, said Rodriguez.
Deputy Kurt Dabb, a 14-year veteran of the department, was identified as the deputy that shot Montgomery. He has been placed on administrative leave during the shooting investigation, which is standard procedure.
On Dec. 30, Montgomery was seriously injured after stabbing himself in the neck while fleeing officers on the northwest side, authorities said.
A U.S. marshals task force was looking for a suspect at the Red Roof Inn, near West Ina Road and I-10, when they encountered a man matching the suspect’s description, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Quentin Mehr said last week. The man saw the marshals and ran before they could make contact, running across the eastbound lanes of I-10 and over the median, Mehr said.
While the suspect was running across the westbound lanes of the freeway, he was almost struck by a vehicle, then took out a pocket knife and stabbed himself in the neck, according to Mehr.
Fire crews took the man to Banner-UMC to be treated for his injuries.
While being admitted to the hospital, Montgomery, who was not the suspect the marshals were originally seeking, was found to be in possession of narcotics, Mehr said.
DPS referred the case to the Pima County Attorney’s Office to review possible charges, but the man was not arrested at that time, and was undergoing treatment.
Nanos said Montgomery was supposed to undergo a mental health evaluation stemming from the incident last week.
“Our mental health support team served an order, a civil order, for him to go to court for a hearing on his mental health status on Monday. He was supposed to go to Superior Court for a mental health evaluation,” said Nanos on Wednesday.
“He did not go. He was in a mental health care facility, Sonora Behavioral Health (Hospital and Inpatient Treatment), because he was in custody there,” Nanos explained. “The facility released him sometime after that. I don’t understand this.
“I just cannot believe this,” said Nanos. “It is ironic that we don’t have a mental health-care system in place here. We need some of the money President Obama approved in his package for mental health-care treatment.
“We are coming up on the anniversary of one of the worst shootings (Jan. 8, 2011) here, and we are still struggling with our mental-health treatment,” said Nanos.
