Police on Monday identified a 19-year-old California man as the gunman who shot and killed three people — including two children — at a food festival south of San Francisco.
Santino William Legan, 19, cut through a fence at the festival on Sunday evening and shot at people with a “AK-47-style” assault rifle at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee told reporters. Within a minute of opening fire, Legan was fatally shot by three onsite police officers armed with handguns.
Legan opened fire at people attending the three-day festival, about 48 kilometres southeast of San Jose. He killed a six-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s, Smithee said. Police believe Legan purchased the rifle legally in Nevada on July 9, Smithee said.
Officials haven’t named the slain victims. Fifteen other people were injured.
Smithee said previously a second suspect “was involved in some way — we just don’t know in what way.”
He said the motive remains unclear.
Legan appeared to post a photograph from the festival on his Instagram account shortly before the shooting, accompanied by disgruntled captions. The account only appeared to be a few days old, and was deactivated at some point on Monday morning.
Watch as people disperse from the festival as shots ring out:
“Ayyy garlic festival time,” he wrote in the caption to the picture of people walking through the festival grounds. “Come get wasted on overpriced sh-t.”
Another photograph posted on Sunday showed a sign warning of a high danger of forest fires. Its caption urged people to read “Might is Right,” a racist and sexist treatise written by the pseudonymous author Ragnar Redbeard in the late 19th century. “Why overcrowd towns and pave more open space to make room for hordes of mestizos and Silicon Valley white twats?” the caption continued.
Grandmother IDs young victim
The six-year-old boy, who was shot near a bouncy castle, was identified by his grandmother as Stephen Romero. In an interview with ABC7 News, Maribel Romero described her grandson as “a really loving boy.”
Her daughter-in-law and the boy’s other grandmother were also being treated in hospital for gunshot wounds, she said. “I want justice for my grandson,” Mirabel said.
“He was joyful, always wanted to play, always positive,” his father told the San Jose newspaper during an interview at the hospital where the boy died.
Other witnesses described the chaos that ensued during the shooting.
Singer Jack van Breen said he saw a man wearing a green shirt and greyish handkerchief around his neck shoot into the food area with what looked like an assault rifle. Van Breen and other members of the band dove under the stage.
Van Breen said he heard someone shout: “Why are you doing this?” and the reply: “Because I’m really angry.”
The gunman cut through a fence to evade metal detectors and other security at the festival’s entrance, police said.
“What’s going on?” a woman can be heard asking on one video. “Who’d shoot up a garlic festival?”
‘Throwing tables’ to get out
Evenny Reyes, 13, told the San Jose Mercury News that at first she thought the gunfire was fireworks but then saw someone with a wounded leg.
“We were just leaving and we saw a guy with a bandana wrapped around his leg because he got shot,” Reyes told the newspaper. “There was a little kid hurt on the ground. People were throwing tables and cutting fences to get out.”
Maximo Rocha, a volunteer with the Gilroy Browns youth football team, said he saw many people on the ground, but could not be sure how many were shot.
He told NBC Bay Area that “quite a few” were injured, “because I helped a few.”
One video posted on Twitter showed a blood-spattered woman sitting in the back of a semi-trailer and telling a man she had been shot in the hand.
Founded in 1979, the Gilroy Garlic Festival is an annual event run by volunteers and held outdoors at Christmas Hill Park.
Weapons of any kind are prohibited, according to the event’s website, which also said anyone wearing clothing or paraphernalia indicating membership in a gang, including a motorcycle club, would be refused entry.
“I want to express my extreme shock and sadness about what’s happened today,” said Gilroy Mayor Roland Velasco at a Sunday night news conference.
“I would ask for the thoughts and prayers of the community as our Gilroy police officers continue to investigate this tragic and senseless crime.”
