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Gilroy Garlic Festival Suspected Gunman Shot Dead Identified

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GILROY, CA — At least three people were killed and 12 more injured at the Gilroy Garlic Festival Sunday evening. The shooting started around 5:41 p.m. at Christmas Hill Park where the festival takes place.

As of late Sunday night, police had not released information about the shooter or his victims. However, a federal law enforcement official on Monday told Patch that the gunman is 19-year-old Santino William Legan and that his home is being searched.

The family of a 6-year-old boy told KRON4 that the child was killed in the incident.

“My son had his whole life to live and he was only 6,” Alberto Romero said of his son, Steven.

“That’s all I can say.”

Romero told NBC Bay Area that Steven’s mother and grandmother had also been injured in the attack and were in the hospital.

Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said during a Sunday evening news conference that the man now identified as Legan was killed by police officers. Officers were there within one minute of the incident. A heavy police presence at the festival is normal procedure, according to Smithee.

Chief Smithee added that police believe a second man may have been involved in the incident. He said it’s not clear if that person also fired a weapon or was there to help the gunman.

At least one gun was recovered.

Gilroy Mayor Roland Velasco issued an emergency proclamation early Monday morning in the aftermath of a mass shooting. Velasco shared the proclamation on his Facebook page, noting that the proclamation would allow the city to request personnel and equipment and help the city get reimbursed by the state for expenses related to the response and investigation.

“This is critically important since we have police, fire and FBI personnel that will remain on-scene for the next few days processing the crime scene,” Velasco said in a Facebook post.

Smithee said it’s believed that the men entered the festival by cutting a hole in a fence bordering a street. People who went to the festival through the official entrances had passed through scanners and were subjected to bag searches.

Gilroy police tweeted Sunday evening that the “hearts” of the police department and the entire community go out to the victims at the shooting. The scene is still active, police said, and anyone looking for loved ones was asked to go to the reunification center at Gavilan College in parking lot B. The tweet was accompanied by the hashtag “#GilroyActiveshooter.”

A Gilroy police dispatcher would only tell Patch on Sunday they were “extremely busy.”

St. Louise Hospital in Gilroy and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center confirmed receiving 11 patients between them. Their conditions ranged from fair to critical.

An official of the Santa Clara County Health System, Joy Alexiou said that some of the patients had been discharged from the hospitals.

A witness line and family reunification line has been established at 408-846-0583.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were assisting the Gilroy Police Department in the investigation.

Video posted on social media showed people running away from the festival as at least one gunshot rings out. In a second video, a half-dozen shots can be heard as people scream and run.Witness Julissa Contreras told NBC Bay Area a rifle-toting white man in his 30s fired three to four shots a second.

“It was just rapid firing,” she said. “I could see him shooting in just every direction. He wasn’t aiming at anyone specifically. It was just left to right, right to left. …

“He definitely was prepared for what he was doing,” she said.

“Who would shoot up a garlic festival,” one person is heard saying in one of the videos.

A witness told KTVU-TV the gunman, dressed in fatigues, appeared to be “randomly shooting,” and that he heard 30-40 shots.

The three-day festival has been running since 1979, according to the event’s website. It features “garlicky food, live entertainment, and family fun.” The event was to run until 6 p.m. Sunday.

The event drew about 80,000 people last year and the Guinness Book of World Records considers it the world’s largest garlic festival.

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted that her office was closely following the situation and described the shooting as “simply horrific.”

“Grateful to first responders who are on the scene in Gilroy and keeping those injured by such senseless violence in my thoughts,” she wrote.

Harris added the nation has a gun violence epidemic.

Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted the mass shooting was “nothing short of horrific.”

“Tonight, CA stands with the Gilroy community,” he wrote. “My office is monitoring the situation closely. Grateful for the law enforcement’s efforts and their continued work as this situation develops.”

President Donald Trump tweeted that law enforcement agencies were at the scene of shootings in Gilroy and that reports were a shooter wasn’t yet apprehended.

“Be careful and safe,” he wrote.

Patch staffers Sue Wood, Colin Miner and Autumn Johnson contributed reporting.

Bay City News contributed to this report.

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