Ex-Cop Killed Wife With Gun State Took Away And Then Returned, Report Says

A former police officer in Alabama used a weapon that authorities had taken away and then returned to kill his wife in 2019, a report has said.

Ex-cop Jason McIntosh, 46, was forced to give up his gun nine months before the killing because he had shot and injured his 31-year-old estranged wife, Megan Montgomery, NBC News reported. However, the state’s top law enforcement agency reportedly returned the firearm, which he used 16 days later to fatally shoot Montgomery on Nov. 30, 2019, during another late-night dispute in Mountain Brook, Alabama.

Prior to him getting back the weapon, McIntosh had pending domestic violence charges and an active protective order from his wife.

In March, McIntosh pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of murder and was sentenced to 30 years in state prison. Prosecutors had previously charged McIntosh with capital murder punishable with the death penalty due to the existence of the protective order.

On the night of the 2019 incident, Montgomery was out with friends at an oyster bar when McIntosh approached her and forced her to leave with him. He then drove her to the parking lot of the Mountain Brook Athletic Center, where he had shot her three times, police said.

Months prior to this, Montgomery was rushed to an emergency room in a Birmingham, Alabama, suburb, with a gunshot wound in her upper right arm in February 2019, according to NBC News. She reportedly doctors, “He shot me,” referring to her husband.

McIntosh resigned from the Hoover Police Department after the incident amid an internal affairs review of the shooting. Montgomery moved out of their home and filed a request for a protection from abuse order in which she asked the court to remove McIntosh’s firearms.

Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) special agent Vince Cunningham interviewed Montgomery, who told him “she was afraid,” according to the report filed by the organization and obtained by NBC. Cunningham took McIntosh’s gun as evidence, and Montgomery filed a restraining order.

Two months later, his wife filed domestic violence charges after she suffered injuries near her ribs during another dispute. Mcintosh was arrested and later released on bail. Montgomery then filed for divorce.

McIntosh repeatedly texted Cunningham to ask for his gun back for a new private security job, according to documentation reviewed by NBC News. The gun was his personal property despite using it as a duty weapon with the police department.

ALEA confirmed that Cunningham gave McIntosh his gun on Nov. 15, 2019, just a little over two weeks before he shot his wife.

McIntosh’s lawyer, Tommy Spina, was shocked that his client was given his firearm back.

“In my opinion it was irrational, illogical and not prudent to do so,” Spina told the outlet, adding that without the gun, “I don’t think what happened that night would have happened that night.”

"If ALEA had not returned the weapon, Mr. McIntosh could have legally purchased a firearm," a spokesperson for ALEA told NBC News. "The gun was Mr. McIntosh’s personal property, the investigation was closed, and ALEA had no legal justification for keeping his private property. Additionally, the restraining order did not restrict Mr. McIntosh’s access to firearms. If the gun had been a department issued service weapon, ALEA would have returned it to the department."

However, McIntosh's lawyer said though the former cop never bought another gun in the months between having his weapon taken away and returned despite being able to purchase one.

Alabama law also states that no person "who is subject to a valid protection order for domestic abuse … shall own a firearm or have one in his or her possession or under his or her control," the report said.