Files cite bizarre behavior of soldier slain in standoff with police

Skyline Drive standoff Slain soldier behaved bizarrely Fort Eustis serviceman wore costume of The Joker, records show

The Army soldier killed in a standoff with police in Shenandoah National Park on Sunday was acting so bizarrely that day that he painted his face and dressed to look like The Joker, Batman's nemesis.

Spc. Christopher N. Lanum, who attacked a fellow soldier at Fort Eustis with a knife and stun gun while wearing the costume, "idolized" The Joker, according to records filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

Lanum "said everything The Joker did he did for a reason, like killing people, and that he agreed with the philosophy of doing things for a reason," the records said.

Lanum also left a note saying he was "preparing for war," according to the records.

Lanum, 25, was shot dead by police in a minivan on Skyline Drive after refusing to drop a shotgun he was holding, with his finger on the trigger, according to the records.

The details emerged from an affidavit filed to obtain a warrant to arrest Patsy Ann Marie Montowski of Chesapeake, Lanum's girlfriend. She was arrested Wednesday and charged with being an accessory after the fact in Lanum's attack on his roommate, Spc. Mitchell Stone.

Montowski, who was a passenger in Lanum's car when he was killed, suffered a minor wound in the confrontation with police.

Montowski told federal agents that the incident started when a fight broke out between the two men early Sunday morning at their Fort Eustis apartment, whose walls were decorated with Joker masks and paintings. She said at one point she used a stun gun on Stone and tried to push Stone off Lanum.

Stone told authorities that Lanum, for no apparent reason, shocked him three times with the gun. He said Montowski also shocked him at least four times as he fought with Lanum. At one point, Stone said Lanum came from behind him and cut at his throat twice, according to the affidavit.

Stone was treated and released at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital after the attack.

Lanum and Montowski took off in her car after the attack and ended up on Skyline Drive, where a park ranger noticed the couple "because they were both wearing head coverings which covered their hair and one of them stared at the [park ranger] with big eyes, appearing startled," according to the affidavit.

The couple drove away, but park officials determined they were wanted and called state police for help, records show.

A chase ensued and eventually ended when Lanum lost control of the vehicle and struck a parked pickup truck on Skyline Drive. Montowski told police that Lanum tried to situate the shotgun to kill himself but stopped and asked her to kill him.

As officers approached the couple's vehicle, they yelled "numerous times [for him] to put down his firearm and put up his hands but he refused all commands. One trooper fired through the window of the driver's side of the vehicle and Lanum's shotgun discharged. Lanum was ultimately struck several times and killed," according to the affidavit.

Investigators are interviewing witnesses and awaiting ballistics tests to try to reconstruct the shootout.

"The crux of the investigation is the sequence of the shootings," said Corinne Geller, a spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police. "We want to know who shot who and how."

Lanum was born in Portsmouth and attended high school in Virginia Beach, according to his obituary in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk. He had spent five years in the service, including an 18-month tour in Iraq, the obituary said.

He had been assigned to a medical unit at Fort Eustis in Newport News since April 2008. His family could not be reached yesterday.

Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or .

Contact Bill Geroux at (757) 498-2820 or .