Angel Montaño, AKA ‘Carrot,’ remembered as goofy, gentle, loyal, caring

Angel Montaño was known as kind. He was the type of funny that could make someone laugh even in their saddest moments. He was described as a loyal friend, a loving father and a caring son.

His closest friends told Richmondside he was the type of person that everyone liked — teachers, fellow classmates and those with whom he advocated for students’ rights. These are the details that would be hard to surmise through the recent media coverage about his unexpected death. 

Montaño, 27, was shot and killed by Richmond Police on Aug. 4. Officers were responding to a call for help from his family, who believed Montaño, who police said had a history of mental health problems, was experiencing a crisis. He was waving a knife and threatening his mother and brother, the family said.

Soon after police arrived, Montaño came out of the front door with knives in both hands, ignoring their commands to “stop.” Police video footage shows that as he quickly emerged from the front door of the family’s First Street apartment he was shot.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, leaving Montaño’s mother and brother with a crippling feeling of guilt, grief and loss, friends said in interviews.

“She (Montaño’s mother) called for help, expecting help,” David Nieto, Montaño’s best friend since second grade, told Richmondside. “She called because she said she saw movies where police would talk to people that were in a critical mental condition, and they would talk to them or negotiate with them, or calm them down to the point that they could then take him into a facility to get help.” 

Nieto said Montaño’s mother knew the man who was wielding a knife wasn’t her son at that moment. In the last year, Montaño’s mental health had worsened and he had moved in with his mother for support. 

“He’s had episodes before where they were able to calm him down … at some point, he even checked himself into the hospital because he felt something was off,” Nieto said, noting Montaño’s struggles were well-documented. 

Montaño’s brother, who goes by JJ, had explained Montaño’s health history when he was talking to a 911 dispatcher. Excerpts of the recording were recently released by Richmond Police. 

Police immediately identified the call as a “‘5150” (referring to the Welfare and Institutions Code that allows an adult who is experiencing a mental health crisis to be involuntarily detained for a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization when evaluated to be a danger to others or to themselves). 

“So I don’t understand why they responded like this,” Nieto said. “He was always the softest, most gentlest guy.”

Family gathers to remember “Carrot’s” wholesome, goofy moments

It is a question that has been ringing in the minds of Montaño’s loved ones. But as they have gathered in the past week at a family home to pay their respects, friends and family mostly wanted to remember all the wholesome, goofy and intimate moments. 

Jesus Pedraza, a close friend of Montaño’s since their Helms Middle School days, said dozens of loved ones have been trickling in and out of Montaño’s cousin’s home, just a block away from where he died.

When the news broke, Montaño’s closest friends rushed to be with Montaño’s mother and siblings and have been there every day since. 

“I couldn’t go to sleep that (first) day. We all stayed up together till about 5 in the morning, and I tried going back to work the next day after that, and I just couldn’t. Like every second I felt like crying. Every fake smile I had to do with someone walking into the door was like knives kind of coming at my chest,” Pedraza told Richmondside. 

But his voice lifted when he remembered his favorite moments with Montaño. He took a moment to remember his favorite one — all the friends playing tag on the playground at Marina Bay when they were students at Richmond High School. 

“It was just like, reverting to the back when we were kids, you know, and kind of having an innocent moment chasing each other,” Pedraza said. “And Angel was always so fast compared to everyone, so it was frustrating trying to get away from him, but that was the fun part.” 

Montaño, who was lovingly nicknamed “carrot” because of his ginger hair, had a very tight knit group of guys who were friends from elementary school to adulthood. 

“We were a friend group that was very, I guess you could say, calm. We weren’t very into drinking or doing drugs or anything like that,” Pedraza said. “We were more about like, joking around with each other, playing sports and all that.” 

Montaño: Student athlete, member of high school education justice group

In high school, Montaño was an active student athlete who did football, swimming, volleyball and badminton. He was also part of the Red Cross, salsa club, robotics and Kiwanis club, a student-led organization that tries to make a difference through community service. 

Montaño was also involved in Youth Together, an Oakland-based education justice nonprofit that had an afterschool program at Richmond High School. He joined during his sophomore year.  

Ireri Lora, former Youth Together organizer at the Richmond campus, described Montaño as one of her “kiddos,” someone who was “sweet, caring and brave.” He was part of a core group of eight students that became the leadership team for the Richmond Youth Together program during Lora’s tenure, from when Montaño joined in 2012 to his graduation in 2015.

“These were the students that we were able to see starting to show leadership skills,” she said. “We wanted them to become the future of Youth Together.” Montaño, she said, took quickly to the program’s curriculum, which consisted of having students look at root causes of social disparities such as underfunding of schools in marginalized communities.

The program provided space for students to talk about social issues and took them on field trips.

Lora recalled how Montaño routinely stepped out of his comfort zone, learning to deliver public comments at school board meetings. He was most passionate about bringing attention to the district’s local control funding formula and its education accountability plan for vulnerable students as he  advocated for Richmond High. The group also fought for students to sit on the hiring committee for certain district positions and was eventually granted two student seats at the table.

“He was deeply intelligent,” she said. “He picked up things really fast. When I talk about providing a space for the kids to have the words to express themselves and their (social) conditions, Angel was one of the students that picked up really fast. He wanted to learn.”

One moment that stood out to Lora was a field trip the group took to San Francisco’s Exploratorium. The group of mostly Black and Brown students walked by a bus full of white students who were passing by on the Embarcadero while being loud and disruptive.

“I remember walking with Angel and Angel was like, ‘These white kids, people look at them and think they’re so cute, but if it was us acting like that they’d be talking down like we don’t know how to act,’ ” she said. “He was so perceptive about everything that was happening (in the world). He was very observant.”

Montaño was proud to be from Richmond, she said, often being the one student who rallied the others to represent the city when they would gather with students from other schools that also had Youth Together related protests or events in Oakland.

“Angel always carried that Richmond pride, all of my kiddos carried it, but Angel was very, very, very proud to be from Richmond,” she added.

Ultimately, Montaño and the other students in the Youth Together program’s leadership successfully graduated from high school.

“He was always super dedicated to wanting to take his grades seriously and make his mother proud, which you know, he ultimately did,” Pedraza said. “By graduating from high school, and then he would go into the Marines to further show that he had that dedication.” 

Pedraza said Montaño, who was a Marines reserve officer, joined because he admired the rigorous training required, both physically and mentally. Montaño also had dreams of going to college, so joining the Navy was a way he could do so without burdening his family with the financial cost. 

Montaño also had big dreams of uplifting himself so he could be the best father to his daughter. 

“He just wanted his daughter to have everything he didn’t have growing up and be the father figure that he didn’t have growing up,” Nieto said. Montaño’s father left the family when he was young. 

A guy willing to fall out of a tree for a good laugh

Nieto said his favorite moments with Montano were actually during some of Nieto’s darkest times. Montaño would sleep over at his house for multiple nights just to keep him company. 

One day, Montaño dragged Nieto to the top of the hills of Point Richmond. 

“We did that hike, when we got up there, obviously I was sad still, and he was like, ‘Come on, bro. Like, let’s do this. Let’s climb this,’ ” Nieto said. “He climbed a tree, and I wasn’t in the mood for any BS or any playing around, and I told him you’re going to break a bone or fall, and he said, ‘Nah I’m stronger than this tree.’ ” 

Nieto said before Montaño could finish his sentence, he did indeed fall from the tree. 

“Obviously, we both started cracking up. We both started laughing. And Angel said, ‘What, did I make you laugh?,’ ” Nieto said. “He would go out of his way, even in the most physical way, to make sure he got a laugh out of us. He was always the one getting hurt, because he was trying to be a comedian and would take it that far.” 

Nieto said he grew up with Montaño as if they were cousins, or even brothers. Their families became very close because of their bond. 

He said Montaño was known for being the class clown but not in a way that was ever disrespectful. In fact, teachers liked him. But, true to his humorous self, he would wear silly shirts with phrases like, “My dog ate my homework” or “Show me the rules and I’ll tell you how to break them.” 

Even on the day he died, he was wearing a Grinch T-shirt.

Nieto said Montaño was also the guy who was singing every and any song. 

“We would do this joke that would annoy him where we would play the song and when it was getting to the best part, we just mute it to let him sing it,” Nieto said, laughing. 

The conversations with Montaño’s friends were cyclical. Their voices would cheer up when they remembered a wholesome moment, but quickly fall back into despair. 

Justice will be hard to achieve, loved ones say

Nieto said the group has been trying to be strong for Montaño’s family. Pedraza said part of that is seeking justice and raising awareness about Montano’s death.

His friends are planning on attending the Richmond City Council meeting on Tue., Aug. 19 to hold the officers involved accountable. The action is being organized by Reimagine Richmond, a community group that advocates for police reform and alternatives to emergency response. 

To Pedraza, there will be no real justice because he said Montaño should’ve never been killed. But one thing he believes will be better for the community at-large is removing Officer Nicholas Remick from the force — especially because six months ago he shot and killed another suspect — Jose De Jesus Mendez, who also experiencing a mental health crisis while being sought on a domestic violence warrant and was holding what was initially believed to be a knife. (Shots were also fired by second officers in both cases.)

The family said they believe Montaño was shot multiple times. A police audio and visual account is partially redacted and mutes the moment it happened, making it unclear how many shots were fired.

Pedraza emphasized that he respects the police and always will, but he thinks Richmond Police handled the situation incorrectly. (Richmond Police maintain that the officers involved followed proper training and procedures to the letter of the law. Read their explanation here.)

Nieto said he is hoping for any semblance of justice for Montaño, whether that’s changes in police training, a different approach to mental health crises or stricter guidelines on who becomes and remains an officer. 

He said Montaño’s mother, who is a devout Catholic, is praying that her son’s death isn’t in vain and can lead to meaningful change. 

“Her prayers now are just, you know, if this was supposed to happen this way, or if Angel was supposed to be some sort of light, that hopefully his death will not be ‘just because,’ ” Nieto said.

Lora, who received news of Montaño’s death while in the midst of relocating back to the Bay Area from San Diego, said his former Youth Together group members are now reconnecting after 10 years, hoping to provide support to the family and “honor his life.”

“That’s my goal,” she said. “All the kiddos and organizations that helped develop Angel in his youth are coming back together and reconnecting and using all the tools we learned in the service of honoring Angel’s life.” 

More than anything, Montaño’s family and friends want to change the narrative. They want people to remember the Montaño they knew and loved.

“I want them to remember Angel, not as a mentally challenged veteran, like every report wants to make him seem out to be,” Pedraza said. “He was a loving father that dedicated himself to making sure his family was happy. He was a loving son who always made gestures for his mom, always gave her flowers from Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. He did everything for her … and  he was probably one of the most, like, loyal, trustworthy people that I’ve ever met.”