Midstate man killed in motel shootout long battled addiction

Logan Montgomery, 29, of Lancaster County, was shot and killed on Sunday by a West Manchester Township police officer.

(Undated) — Logan Montgomery seemed positive and optimistic on the phone.

Montgomery, 29, of Lancaster County, had recently been released from UPMC Pinnacle Lancaster, where he spent about two weeks after overdosing on drugs. He wanted to finally straighten out his life.  He even got married on Aug. 7, posting a picture of the marriage certificate on Facebook with the caption, “Never say never! And something’s are just meant to be!!”

On Saturday, Montgomery called his father and said he wanted to move out to Wyoming. He asked him to start looking for apartments.

“He said he needed to start his life anew,” said his father, Jim Montgomery, 68, of Glenrock, Wyoming, “and put all his old associations behind him.”

But one hour later, not long after 8:30 p.m., a West Manchester Township police officer shot and mortally wounded Logan Montgomery in the hallway of a Motel 6 in Manchester Township. He was a suspect in a retail theft, law enforcement said, and had pulled a gun and fired it.

Logan Montgomery, family members said, could be a happy and caring person — but he struggled for years with heroin and other drugs. Interviews, social media posts and court records help create a tableau of a man who was in the active throes of addiction.

The shooting is still under investigation, said Trooper James Spencer, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Police.

Spencer said the police officers — a Northern York County Regional police officer also went to the motel  –  will be interviewed in a timely manner, in accordance with the policies in their departments. York County District Attorney Dave Sunday will later determine whether the use of force was justified.

Logan Montgomery, his father said, leaves behind two daughters, 10 and 5. He liked listening to rap and reading. 

“When the drugs were not there, he was a totally different person. He was like the son I remembered,” Jim Montgomery said. “The drugs are insidious. They change the way you think and everything else.”

On July 26, Northern Lancaster County Regional police were called to a McDonald’s in Warwick Township for a man who had passed out in his vehicle in the drive-thru. 

Police had to shake the man two to three times before he woke up. Logan Montgomery, police said, was lethargic and had trouble answering simple questions. Blood testing later revealed that he had fentanyl, norfentanyl and clonazepam in his system.

Then, on July 29, Manheim Township police responded to a Weis Markets in Lancaster Township for a call about a cardiac arrest.

Logan Montgomery, they said, was unconscious. First-responders provided medical attention and stabilized him. Police found a glass bowl in his car.

He was not allowed to legally possess a gun, in part, because of felony convictions for possession with intent to deliver ecstasy and intentionally possessing a controlled substance, according to court records. In 2013, Logan Montgomery pleaded guilty in the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas to sale or transfer of firearms, records state, after he tried to buy a .380-caliber handgun in a store.

His mother, Cali Esler, said he was a sweet, kind and gentle person in his youth.

Elser, 52, of East Donegal Township, Lancaster County, said her son struggled with substance use — heroin was his drug of choice — for more than 10 years. Every now and then, she said, they’d catch a glimpse of “the real Logan.”

She said it’s “beyond shocking” that her son would get a gun and pull it on someone. Elser said she’s not saying it didn’t happen.

“That wasn’t Logan. None of that is Logan,” she said. “That’s definitely drug-induced Logan.”

Esler said his death hits extra hard. That’s because she just lost her husband, Ted, two months ago. But she said she doesn’t have any animosity toward the police officers. 

“They have a job to do. And it’s a really risky job,” Elser said. “I’m just so thankful none of them were injured any no innocent bystanders were injured.”

On Facebook, Logan Montgomery wrote about addiction and posted pictures of himself in the hospital. One photo was captioned, “#dontuse.” “What death looks like,” another said.

“Heroin will take everything from you,” he wrote in one post, “it has ruined my life in every possible way.”

This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The York Daily Record.