Investigators believe the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter acted alone in a "pre-planned attack" on the California event that killed 2 children aged 6 and 13 and a man in his 20s, police say.
Details: Gilroy Chief of Police Scot Smithee said 15 people were wounded in Sunday's shooting. The suspect, Santino William Legan, 19, bought the "AK-47-type" assault rifle legally in Nevada. There were reports of a second suspect. But Smithee said, "Our investigation is leading us more and more to believe that there was not a second person involved."
What we know: Police said they responded at 5:41pm local time to reports of a shooting at the event in Christmas Hill Park — an area where weapons are prohibited. Smithee said a tool was used to cut through a fence to gain entry to the event. He praised 3 officers who fatally wounded the suspect "despite the fact that they were outgunned with their handguns against a rifle."
- The 3 people to killed in the shooting were ethnic minorities, as were over half of the wounded, the Mercury News notes.
- A user identified as the suspect posted a reference to a racist manifesto on social media days before the shooting, but FBI special agent-in-charge Jack Bennett told a news conference it's too early to determine the motive, per the San Francisco Chronicle.
- FBI agents are examining the suspect’s digital footprint, including his social media presence and electronic devices seized in raids on the Nevada apartment and the Legan family home in Gilroy, the Mercury News reports.
The big picture: Alberto Romero, the father of 6-year-old victim Stephen Romero, told the Mercury News he learned of what happened when he got a panicked call from his wife telling him a gunman had shot their son in the back and wounded her in the stomach and hand and her mother in the leg.
6 year old Steven Romero of San Jose is one of the 3 victims killed in the Gilroy Garlic Festival Shooting. RIP 🙏🏻 @nbcbayarea https://t.co/anfqNSVs3p pic.twitter.com/ioE5fDagj7
— Janelle Wang (@janellewang) July 29, 2019
- Keyla Salazar, the teenager who died in the attack, was just 1 week away from celebrating her 14th birthday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
- Hundreds of people attended a vigil at City Hall in Gilroy, California, Monday night in honor of the who died in a shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, per AP.
- Festival-goer Julissa Contreras told NBC Bay Area she saw a man "rapid firing" with a gun. "I could see him shooting in just every direction. He wasn't aiming at anyone specifically," Contreras said. "He definitely was preparing for what he was doing."
Background: The Gilroy Garlic Festival started in 1979, and Sunday was the final day of event, according to the festival website.
Between the lines: The Los Angeles Times notes that in California, it's illegal to own military-style semiautomatic rifles like the one used in the shooting.
Go deeper: America's 21 deadliest modern mass shootings
Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
