The 19-year-old gunman who attacked the Gilroy Garlic Festival Sunday used an AK-47-style assault rifle he had purchased legally in Nevada less than three weeks ago, but police still do not have a motive for why Santino William Legan targeted the popular event.
At a Monday morning news conference, Gilroy officials said the three people killed were all young � a 6-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s. But they said much worse carnage was avoided by police on scene who engaged the gunman almost immediately after he opened fire.
"When this call came in, the shots being fired, the closest team of officers responded immediately," Police Chief Scot Smithee said. "They were there and engaging the suspect in less than a minute.
"The suspect was armed with an assault-type rifle and as soon as he saw the officers he engaged the officers and fired at the officers with that rifle. I had three officers that engaged that suspect, and despite the fact that they were outgunned with their handguns against a rifle those three officers were able to fatally wound that suspect and end it very quickly."
Smithee said the festival, which can attract 100,000 people over its three-day course, is typically staffed by police and that their presence prevented more violence.
"There absolutely would have been more bloodshed, I believe, with the number of people and the small area that they were in," he said. "I think it's very, very fortunate that they were able to engage him as quickly as they did."
Police did not identify any of the dead or the 12 wounded, but family members have said one of those killed was 6-year-old Steven Romero, whose mother was wounded.
Authorities also say they still are investigating reports that a second person may have been involved in some way.
"We really don't know," the chief said. "We've gotten multiple reports that there may have been another person with him, that they ran this way or they ran that way ... We really don't know at this point."
Legan, who comes from a well-known Gilroy family, apparently was living in Walker Lake, Nev., until recently, according to online databases. Smithee said he purchased the rifle legally on July 9, then returned to California some time before the festival.
Legan family members could not be reached for comment Monday. He is the grandson of a former Santa Clara County supervisor and the brother of a well-known boxer who is training for the 2020 Olympics.
Gilroy police searched his family's home Monday less than two miles from the festival scene at Christmas Hill Park, but authorities say they still do not have a motive for the attack.
Craig Fair, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's San Francisco office, said agents still are searching for an explanation for what he called an "absolutely heinous act."
"Motivation, ideological leanings, was he affiliated with anyone or any group," Fair said. "It still has to be ruled out and still has to be determined at this point."
The gunman's social media accounts were taken down by Monday morning, but various reports indicated he had posted a reference to a white supremacist book to an Instagram account before the shootings.
