A gunman also armed with a hatchet and pepper spray opened fire in a movie theater in suburban Nashville, Tenn. Wednesday before dying in a shootout with police as he tried to escape out a back door.

Fire department spokesman Brian Haas said three people were treated for exposure to pepper spray, and one of those had a superficial wound that could have been caused by a hatchet. No one was taken to a hospital.

There reportedly were eight people in the theater, including the gunman, who was wearing a backpack on his chest and carrying another. Police later detonated the pack he was wearing and said it contained a "hoax device" configured to look like an explosive. The other was determined to contain nothing dangerous.

The gunman was reportedly identified as a  29-year-old man from the Nashville area. Police earlier said he was 51.Police spokesman Don Aaron said he was wearing a surgical mask when he unleashed pepper spray inside the theater showing "Mad Max."

Aaron said an officer came into the theater and was fired upon by the suspect. The officer shot back, then backed off. After that, a SWAT team came in, and there was another exchange of gunfire as the man tried to flee through a back door. The suspect was then found dead.

Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said investigators need to fingerprint the man and do other analyses before releasing his identity. He also said investigators had not yet found the gun the attacker used to shoot at police.

A metro police dispatcher told The Tennessean newspaper the shooting was reported at 1:13 p.m. at the Carmike Hickory Hollow Cinemas in Antioch, Tennessee.

Nashville Police confirmed in a tweet that an active shooting situation was reported, and the the suspect was dead.

The latest shooting comes about two weeks after a gunman opened fire inside a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, during a screening of the film "Trainwreck." Police said John Russell Houser killed two people and wounded nine others before fatally shooting himself.

The Associated Press contributed to this report