By Andy Sevilla.
An 18-year-old Kyle man is in jail after police say he shot at firefighters at least once as they battled a structure fire at the Sunset Ridge Trailer Park early Monday morning.
Jason Montalvo was booked into the Hays County jail Monday on an assault on a public servant charge for allegedly shooting at Kyle firefighters. Montalvo also has an outstanding Travis County warrant for possession of marijuana, according to jail records.
Firefighters were called out to a structure fire just after 1 a.m. Monday in the 300 block of Buggy Whip Drive in southeast Kyle. They found a small storage shed completely engulfed in flames.
According to Kyle Fire Department officials, the fire was considered suspicious, prompting a call to the Hays County Fire Marshal to investigate.
Shortly after the firefighters extinguished the shed fire, they reported hearing gunshots fired, at least one of which hit a wall behind them, city officials said in a statement.
“While waiting [to be cleared from the scene] our firefighters were standing next to the house on the property that the shed was on. They heard what they thought was a gunshot and heard something hit the side of the wall where they were standing,” Kyle Taylor, Kyle’s fire chief, said.
Taylor said the firefighters noticed a hole in the wall near them. He then called police to report the possible shooting. Kyle police officers responded to the scene and determined the gunshot came from a home in the area where the storage shed had caught fire on Buggy Whip Drive.
“We notified the fire marshal of what just occurred and that is when we stood out of the line of fire and let police do their job,” he said.
As police continued their investigation, officers zeroed in on a home at Harvest Moon Parkway, just one block south of the fire incident, where a man was asleep in his bed with a rifle by his side, officials said in a statement. Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett confirmed the weapon was a .177 pellet rifle.
“After waking, [Montalvo] became combative and refused police commands to surrender the rifle,” the city statement said. “Kyle officers then tazed (sic) the man and took him into custody.”
According to Hays County Fire Marshal Mark Chambers, the cause of the storage shed fire is undetermined but suspicious in nature.
“There was no electrical or gas or any other type of ignition source in the shed,” Chambers said. “We couldn’t find anything accidental at the scene.”
Chambers said the next step is to conduct interviews
Montalvo is being held on $14,000 bail and remained at that Hays County Jail as of Monday afternoon, according to county jail records.
The San Marcos Police Department and Hays County SWAT assisted Kyle police in the investigation and arrest.
Taylor said, “I was impressed with the Kyle Police Department, Hays County Fire Marshals’ Office and Hays County SWAT and I want to express my thanks to them for their quick action and for bringing a peaceful resolution to this unfortunate incident. It is great to see multiple agencies from Hays County working together seamlessly under stressful situations.”
