GILROY, California, July 29: Authorities on Monday were searching for answers to why a 19-year-old opened fire on a popular food festival less than a mile from his parents\u2019 home in California, killing two children and another man, but believe many more people would have died if officers patrolling the event had not stopped the gunman so quickly.<\/p>\n
Santino William Legan, 19, cut through a fence and appeared to randomly target people with an \u201cassault-type rifle\u201d Sunday afternoon, the end of the three-day Gilroy Garlic Festival that attracts about 100,000 people to the city known as the \u201cGarlic Capital of the World,\u201d Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said.<\/p>\n
Police responded in less than a minute, and Legan turned his \u201cAK-47-type\u201d gun on the officers, Smithee said. Three officers fired back and killed Legan, who legally purchased the weapon in Nevada this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how proud I am of the officers who were able to engage this guy as quickly as they did,\u201d the police chief said. \u201cWe had thousands of people there. It could have gone so much worse so fast. … There absolutely would have been more bloodshed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legan\u2019s motive wasn\u2019t known, Smithee said.<\/p>\n
The festival in the agricultural city of 50,000 about 80 miles (176 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco had security that required people to pass through metal detectors and have their bags searched.<\/p>\n
A gunman cut through a fence to avoid security and opened fire at Northern California’s popular Gilroy Garlic Festival, killing three and wounding at least 15 before police fatally shot him as terrified people and performers ran, officials said. (July 29)<\/p>\n
The shooter sneaked in through a fence that borders a parking lot next to a creek, Smithee said, and the gunfire sent panicked people running away and diving for cover under tables and a concert stage.<\/p>\n
Some witnesses reported a second suspect, Smithee said, but it was unclear whether that person was armed or just helped in some way. A manhunt stretched into Monday.<\/p>\n
Six-year-old Stephen Romero, 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s were killed, authorities and family said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son had his whole life to live and he was only 6,\u201d Alberto Romero told San Francisco Bay Area news station KNTV. \u201cThat\u2019s all I can say.\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy\u2019s grandmother, Maribel Romero, told Los Angeles station KABC-TV that she searched several hospitals before learning he had died. She said he was \u201calways kind, happy and, you know, playful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials didn\u2019t release the names of the other two victims. The wounded were taken to multiple hospitals, and their conditions ranged from fair to critical, with some undergoing surgery. At least five have been released.<\/p>\n
Police searched the two-story home of Legan\u2019s family less than a mile from the garlic festival and a dusty car parked outside before leaving the house Monday with paper bags and what appeared to be other evidence.<\/p>\n
Jan Dickson, a neighbor across the street, said Santino Legan had not lived there for at least a year and that SWAT officers came to the home Sunday night. She called the Legans \u201ca nice, normal family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you cope with this? They have to deal with the fact that their son did this terrible thing and that he died,\u201d Dickson said.<\/p>\n
The Gilroy Garlic Festival features food, cooking contests and music and is a decades-old staple in the city. Authorities said police, paramedics and firefighters were stationed throughout the event.<\/p>\n
The band TinMan was starting an encore Sunday when the shooting started. Singer Jack van Breen said he saw a man wearing a green shirt and grayish handkerchief around his neck fire into the food area.<\/p>\n
Van Breen, from nearby Santa Clara, said he heard someone shout: \u201cWhy are you doing this?\u201d The reply: \u201cBecause I\u2019m really angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The audience began screaming and running, and the five members of the band and others dove under the stage.<\/p>\n
Bandmate Vlad Malinovsky said he heard a lot of shots and then it stopped. Later, law enforcement told those hiding to come out with their hands up.<\/p>\n
Donna Carlson of Reno, Nevada, was helping a friend at a jewelry booth when \u201call of a sudden it was pop, pop, pop. And I said, \u2018I sure hope that\u2019s fireworks.\u2019\u201d She got on her hands and knees and hid behind a table until police told her it was safe to leave.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump condemned the \u201cwicked murderer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe express our deepest sadness and sorrow for the families who lost a precious loved one in the horrific shooting last night in Gilroy, California,\u201d Trump said before an event at the White House. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GILROY, California, July 29: Authorities on Monday were searching for answers to why a 19-year-old opened fire on a popular food festival less than a mile from his parents\u2019 home in California, killing two children and another man, but believe many more people would have died if officers patrolling the event had not stopped the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,44,1,53,35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6807"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6809,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6807\/revisions\/6809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}