GILROY, Calif. _ In the hours before Santino William Legan is alleged to have begun firing into a crowd at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday, police say the 19-year-old posted a photo on Instagram with the caption, "Ayyy garlic festival time come get wasted on overpriced ... ," using an expletive.
He also posted a photo of a Smokey Bear sign warning about fire danger with a caption instructing people to read the novel "Might Is Right" by Ragnar Redbeard, authorities said.
The book, published in 1890, includes discredited principles related to Social Darwinism that have been used to justify racism, slavery and colonialism, said Brian Levin, director of California State University, San Bernardino's Center on Hate and Extremism.
"The notion that people of color are biologically inferior is a key tenet of this book, and that biological determinism, the Darwinian view of the world, justifies aggression against diverse people and vulnerable people," Levin said.
Legan was identified by police Monday as the shooter who opened fire at the crowded Gilroy Garlic Festival, killing three and wounding 12 others. Officers who were patrolling the park during the event shot and killed Legan after the rampage.
Smithee said the gunman was able to circumvent the Northern California festival's security by entering from a creek area and cutting through a fence.
The weapon that Legan used was a WASR 10 with a 7.62. It is a semiautomatic rifle built in Romania that looks like a military-style AK-47. The weapon, with its standard clip and stocks, is considered an assault rifle that is banned under California law. The weapon is legal in Nevada, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
The AK-47-style rifle that was used in the attack was purchased legally in Nevada on July 9. Legan was originally from Gilroy, but spent some time in Nevada living with family, according to Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee. Early Monday morning, the FBI and Mineral County sheriff's deputies searched a unit in a triplex in Walker Lake, Nev., that authorities believe Legan used in the days before the shooting, according to Mineral County District Attorney Sean Rowe.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Monday the investigation into the shooting may determine that the shooter broke a California law by purchasing the weapon in Nevada and bringing it into California.
"That weapon could not be sold in California. That weapon cannot be imported into the state of California," he said. "There is a very strong likelihood, as we develop the evidence, that the perpetrator in this particular case, violated California law, on top of the crimes of homicide."
Police on Monday searched a house linked to Legan at the end of a quiet suburban cul-de-sac in Gilroy. Officers emerged from the house carrying several paper bags.
Footage surfaced of Legan's graduation from Gilroy High School in 2017. In the YouTube video, Legan's full name is announced before he walks across the stage to receive his diploma. The school declined to confirm that he attended and stated that it would respond to media inquiries within the timeline required by the law. The school district is offering counseling sessions for students, staff and members of the community affected by the incident.
A law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said police were still trying to determine a motive for the attack, adding detectives were digging into the suspect's social media accounts for indications of his belief system and opinions.
Books and movies, Levin said, are often used in the radicalization process, and "Might Is Right," like others that used to be obscure, is easily found on the internet.
"It's certainly not the most popular available title in the virtual Aryan book club available 24 hours a day on a computer screen nearest you," Levin said. "It stands out as among the worst bigoted screeds of its era promoting biological determinism and racial prejudice."
Legan identified himself as being of Italian and Iranian descent in his Instagram profile, authorities said; the profile has since been deleted.
Legan appears all but absent from social media. It's unclear whether the gunman was targeting specific people or shooting randomly.
Legan lived in Gilroy, not far from the site of the famed food festival. His grandfather was a former Santa Clara County supervisor.
When Jerome Turcan heard on the radio that there had been a shooting in Gilroy, he called his friend Tom Legan and Legan's son, Rosino, whom he had trained in boxing and martial arts since he was 7 years old. Turcan got through to Rosino, who told Turcan he was in the car with his cousin, searching for his little brother, Santino, Turcan recalled. Rosino couldn't find his brother and was thinking of going to the emergency room.
"They wanted to be sure he was OK. That was the last contact I had with him," Turcan said. "And then I learned this morning it was Santino who did the shooting _ it was shocking."
Turcan, who teaches martial arts in San Jose, said he trained Rosino two or three times a week for more than a decade. He watched the boy grow into a top-notch athlete who he said at one point ranked second in the nation for his weight class. Tom Legan is "a great athlete himself," Turcan said, adding that he had tried out for the Olympics in 1988 for the 800- and 400-meter events. Turcan said he didn't see much of Santino _ the boy didn't box or train in martial arts.
"That family is a good family, really respectful, really hard-working," he said. "I don't know where this comes from. It's shocking, just shocking."
Rosino Legan, 23, is a boxer with USA Boxing. It's unclear if he is actively training for the 2020 Olympics but was described as such two years ago. In a 2014 Medium post he wrote about his experience with the 2013 California vs. Puerto Rico boxing team and described his father, Tom Legan _ a competitive track-and-field runner _ as his coach.
In a 2017 Gilroy Dispatch article, Santino Legan is described as one of his brother's "ready-made sparring partners," in addition to his two other brothers.
Rosino Legan is a 2018 graduate of Santa Clara University, a private college, and graduated from a high school east of Santa Cruz.
Jack Van Breen, lead vocalist and guitarist for the local band TinMan, told reporters that his group was playing an encore when he heard a pop. He turned in the direction of the noise and saw a man "in a green top with a gray handkerchief kind of around his neck and what appeared to be an assault rifle."
"He started shooting again in the direction of where all the food people were dining," Van Breen told The Associated Press.
He heard someone shout: "Why are you doing this?" and the reply: "Because I'm really angry."
Ernesto Mendoza said a caravan of police vehicles streamed into his quiet Gilroy area Sunday evening, not long after reports of a shooting. Blaring from the vehicles' loudspeakers was a message: Go inside and shut your doors, Mendoza said.
Authorities cordoned off the mouth of the cul-de-sac until about 1 a.m., when the vehicles streamed out, he said.
Mendoza believed they were just making sure the neighborhood was safe _ he often runs in the park where the festival is held, just a 30-minute jog from his home. It wasn't until Monday morning, when reporters asked Mendoza what he knew of his neighbors, that he realized the shooter may have lived on his street.
"Our neighbor? We don't want to speculate it's our neighbor, because we don't know yet," he said. "It's terrible. How many years have they been doing that festival? It's supposed to be very quiet."
