Lauren Hepler, Amy Harmon and Richard A. Oppel Jr.

Chief Scot Smithee of the Gilroy Police Department identified the perpetrator of Sunday’s attack as Santino William Legan, 19. The gunman, who also wounded 12 people, carried out the shooting with a semi-automatic rifle that he had purchased legally this month in Nevada, the police chief said.

Three officers confronted the gunman only a minute after the shooting began at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, the chief said. “Even though they were outgunned, with handguns against a rifle, those three officers were able to fatally wound that suspect,” Smithee said. “It could have gone so much worse so fast.”

He said the gunman’s motive was not known but indicated that he was a resident of Gilroy, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Jose.

“I think he was living with family members,” he said. “I don’t know how long he was in Nevada or how long he’d been back.”

The Garlic Festival, founded in 1979, is an internationally known event, drawing roughly 100,000 visitors each year — and one that has special significance for locals. Thousands of community members volunteer at the festival, which raises money for nonprofits.

Peter Leroe-Munoz, a city councilman, said he had volunteered at a booth at the garlic festival and was horrified to learn that the shooting had taken place at the city’s prime event.

“That is our crown jewel in terms of our cultural identity,” he said. “For this kind of tragedy to take place at something so core to our community, it is a tragedy beyond words.”

The 6-year-old victim, Stephen Romero, was shot in the back, said his father, Alberto. Among the dozen people wounded were Alberto Romero’s wife, who was shot in the stomach, and his mother-in-law, who was shot in the leg.

“My son had his whole life to live,” Romero told NBC Bay Area.

Stephen Romero’s uncle, Noe Romero, 36, said that his nephew loved Batman and playing with his cousins on a tire swing outside his grandparents’ house in San Jose.

“Let’s put it this way, he’s been the only boy” out of the grandchildren on his father’s side of the family, Noe Romero said. “That’s our boy.”

California has, by some yardsticks, the strictest gun laws in the country. With few exceptions, it is illegal in the state to own, possess, lend or import guns like the one described on Monday by Smithee. Nevada does not have any similar ban, however.

The description provided by the chief suggested that it was a semi-automatic weapon, allowing the gunman to fire one shot with each pull of the trigger. California bans firearms that fit the state’s definition of an “assault weapon.” That includes many of the most popular semi-automatic rifles and others that have ammunition magazines that can be easily swapped out and which also include features like a pistol grip or folding stock.

To reach the festival, the suspect appeared to have crossed a bordering creek and cut a perimeter fence, the police chief said. Authorities said they were continuing to search for a possible accomplice, in response to some witness reports. “We don’t have any confirmation that any second suspect did any shooting, but we are certainly investigating all leads to determine what that person’s role was,” Smithee said.

The shooting happened around 5:40 p.m. local time Sunday. On Monday morning, red and white festival parking signs still lined residential streets around Christmas Hill Park. Several rows of pickup trucks, sedans and golf carts remained parked along the grass behind yellow crime-scene tape.

Officers from several local and state law enforcement agencies tightly controlled access to the park, and a handwritten sign posted at nearby Gavilan College said that campus would also be closed for the day.

Christmas Hill Park is just off a busy thoroughfare between two new subdivisions under construction on the southwestern edge of Gilroy. In recent years, the agricultural town located at the end of the Bay Area commuter rail line has grown into an extended Silicon Valley suburb.

Marie Blankley, the mayor pro tempore, called it “heartbreaking and tragic,” and Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Twitter that it was “nothing short of horrific.” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., added that “our country has a gun violence epidemic that we cannot tolerate.”

Videos posted on social media showed attendees running past white tents in a grassy field, apparently fleeing. People looking to reunite with friends and family members had been told to gather at Gavilan College, a community college on the outskirts of the city.

One of those injured was Lesley Sanchez, 15, a Gilroy High School cheerleader who was volunteering at the festival, according to family members. She was shot in the hip but was well enough to receive visitors in her hospital room Sunday night, they said.

Olivia Chiu, 24, a festival attendee from San Francisco, said she and her boyfriend heard gunshots that seemed to come from a central area near food and merchandise vendors.

“Everyone was in a state of panic and trying to escape out of the festival to a safer area,” she said.

She said she and several others ran out of the park and into a neighborhood, where they knocked on doors in search of shelter.

Jonathan Williams, 29, who was raised in Gilroy, was sitting on a hay bale when he heard what he thought were fireworks. When the sound did not stop, he realized they were gunshots — at least 20.

He saw lots of people, including children with their parents, running frantically and hiding under anything they could find.

“There were people jumping in closed booth tents, hiding under tables,” he said.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/us/gilroy-garlic-festival-shooting-california.html" id="5867fcf4-3bd1-3922-aba6-36119b3c9f9f">The New York Times</a>.

California Festival Shooting: Two Children Among the Dead

GILROY, Calif. — A 6-year-old boy who loved Legos, a 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s were killed in a shooting at a food festival in Gilroy, California, police said Monday as they provided new details but few answers as to why a gunman had opened fire on crowd of people at the city’s annual summer celebration.

Stephen Romero, a 6-year-old boy from San Jose who loved Legos and Batman, had been playing near a bounce house with his mother and grandmother before he was killed. A 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s were the other victims, police said Monday.

The gunman also wounded 12 people before he was fatally shot in an exchange with three police officers, who had responded within one minute, the police chief said.

“As soon as he saw the officers he engaged the officers and fired,” said Chief Scot Smithee of the Gilroy Police Department. “Then we had the aftermath of dealing with the victims.”

Smithee identified the gunman as Santino William Legan, 19, a resident of Gilroy, about 30 miles southeast of San Jose. The chief said the gunman’s motive was not known.

“Motive is important,” Smithee said at a news conference Monday afternoon. “Everybody wants to know why, the answer why. Any affiliation with other people or groups of people” would be significant, he said.

The shooting “appeared as though it was random, but we’re still too early in the investigation to be able to say that definitively,” the chief said.

The suspect’s car was found northeast of Christmas Hill Park, where the festival was held, the chief said. Authorities were in the process of executing a warrant to search the car.

Legan’s home, on Gilroy’s south side, also was searched, the chief said, adding that he had no further details.

California, by some yardsticks, is among the states with the strictest gun laws in the country. Authorities did not specify the type of weapon used in the attack or whether it is banned in California. But they said the gunman carried out the shooting with a semi-automatic rifle that he had purchased legally this month in Nevada, a scenario that experts said may highlight how restrictions in some jurisdictions can be undermined by neighboring states whose gun laws are more lax.

“That’s the problem with this patchwork of laws throughout the country,” said Adam Skaggs, chief counsel of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which lobbies for tighter gun laws. “Some places are trying to move the needle at the state level, but it is like combating air pollution. Your state can be the strongest on regulating emissions, but if neighboring states have no pollution controls, then air pollution is going to come downwind.”

Gilroy’s garlic festival, founded in 1979, is an internationally known event, drawing roughly 100,000 visitors each year — and one that has special significance for locals. Thousands volunteer at the festival, which raises money for local organizations, including youth swim leagues, music groups and a mission trip to build houses in Mexico.

Neighbors of the Legan family said Monday that their quiet, tree-lined community is home to a diverse mix of families and older residents. Two doors down from the family’s home, Rosana Mendoza, who has lived on the street since 2008, said the Legans were always pleasant and quick to say hello.

“It’s a quiet place,” Mendoza said. “We are shocked because they are very nice people.”

At the end of the cul-de-sac where the family lives, Larry Scettrini said he and his wife, a Spanish teacher at Gilroy High School, knew the Legans well enough to exchange pleasantries while doing yard work. The family set up a boxing gym in their garage to support another son’s amateur boxing career, Scettrini said, but he had never seen political slogans, symbols or other indications near the home to make him worry about violence.

“I’m just stunned and heartbroken,” said Scettrini, 69, a Gilroy native.

Craig Fair, a deputy special agent with the FBI in San Francisco, confirmed that Legan had recently opened a Facebook account, but he said he couldn’t confirm if he also owned an Instagram account that has been circulating online.

Smithee said at the news conference that there was “a young man that thought it would be good to post on social that he shot up the G fest.” That man, a 20-year-old, was located and taken into custody, but authorities determined he was not involved in the shooting, the chief said, adding that the posts were a “fun way to get attention, apparently.”

The 6-year-old victim, Stephen Romero, was shot in the back, said his father, Alberto. Among the dozen people wounded were Alberto Romero’s wife, who was shot in the stomach; and his mother-in-law, who was shot in a leg.

Stephen Romero’s uncle, Noe Romero, 36, said that his nephew loved playing with his cousins on a tire swing outside his grandparents’ house in San Jose.

To reach the festival, the suspect appeared to have crossed a nearby creek and cut a perimeter fence, the police chief said. Authorities said they were continuing to search for a possible accomplice, in response to some witness reports. “We don’t have any confirmation that any second suspect did any shooting, but we are certainly investigating all leads to determine what that person’s role was,” Smithee said.

Christmas Hill Park is just off a busy thoroughfare between two new subdivisions that are under construction on the southwestern edge of Gilroy. In recent years, Gilroy, an agricultural town at the end of the Bay Area commuter rail line, has grown into an extended Silicon Valley suburb.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Twitter that the shooting was “nothing short of horrific.” Sen. Kamala Harris of California wrote that “our country has a gun violence epidemic that we cannot tolerate.”

“Law Enforcement is at the scene of shootings in Gilroy, California. Reports are that shooter has not yet been apprehended. Be careful and safe!” President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday night.

Marie Blankley, mayor pro tempore of Gilroy, spent Sunday afternoon making mimosas at a booth for the local Rotary Club. She finished her shift at 5:30 p.m., picked up some ribs to go and headed home, she said. She now believes she must have just missed the shooting, which broke out around 5:40 p.m.

“I am a lifelong Gilroy resident, 55 years — this is shocking,” she said in an interview Monday, describing a city where thousands volunteer for the annual garlic festival and people of all ages come out to enjoy signature food like garlic bread, shrimp scampi and pepper steaks.

“One of the last mimosas I made, the last mimosa I made before our shift ended,” was for people who turned out to be victims, Blankley said, referring to two people who were injured. One needed stitches, she said, and the other had been shot in the arm.

Boy, 6, and Girl, 13, Are Among Victims in Attack at Festival

GILROY, Calif. — The smell of barbecue was wafting through the air, a local rock band was playing its last song, and parents were collecting their children at the end of the annual garlic festival in Gilroy, California, on Sunday when a gunman opened fire, killing three people.

“As soon as he saw the officers he engaged the officers and fired,” said Chief Scot Smithee of the Gilroy Police Department.

Legan’s home, on Gilroy’s south side, also was searched, the chief said.

California, by some yardsticks, is among the states with the strictest gun laws in the country. Authorities did not specify the type of weapon used in the attack or whether it is banned in California. But they said the gunman carried out the shooting with a semi-automatic rifle he had purchased legally this month in Nevada, a scenario that experts said may highlight how restrictions in some jurisdictions can be undermined by neighboring states whose gun laws are more lax.

Craig Fair, a deputy special agent with the FBI in San Francisco, confirmed Legan had recently opened a Facebook account, but he said he couldn’t confirm if he also owned an Instagram account that has been circulating online.

To reach the festival, the suspect appeared to have crossed a nearby creek and cut a perimeter fence, the police chief said. Authorities said they were continuing to search for a possible accomplice, in response to some witness reports.

“Motive is important,” Smithee said at a news conference Monday afternoon. “Everybody wants to know why, the answer why.”

Smithee said at the news conference that there was “a young man that thought it would be a good idea to post on social that he just shot up the G fest.” That man, a 20-year-old, was located and taken into custody, but authorities determined he was not involved in the shooting, the chief said. The posts, he added, were a “fun way to get some attention, apparently.”

Chief Scot Smithee of the Gilroy Police Department identified the perpetrator of Sunday’s attack as Santino William Legan, 19. The gunman, who also wounded 12 people, carried out the shooting with a semi-automatic rifle he had purchased legally this month in Nevada, the police chief said.

He said the gunman’s motive was not known but indicated he was a resident of Gilroy, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Jose.

The Garlic Festival, founded in 1979, is an internationally known event, drawing roughly 100,000 visitors each year.

California has, by some yardsticks, the strictest gun laws in the country.

With few exceptions, it is illegal in the state to own, possess, lend or import guns like the one described Monday by Smithee. Nevada does not have any similar ban, however.

The description provided by the chief suggested tit was a semi-automatic weapon, allowing the gunman to fire one shot with each pull of the trigger. California bans firearms that fit the state’s definition of an “assault weapon.” That includes many of the most popular semi-automatic rifles and others that have magazines that can be easily swapped out and which include features like a pistol grip or folding stock.

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Lauren Hepler, Amy Harmon and Richard A. Oppel Jr.

Articles written by the author

California Festival Shooting: Two Children Among the Dead

Boy, 6, and Girl, 13, Are Among Victims in Attack at Festival

Boy, 6, and Girl, 13, Are Among Victims in Attack at Festival

Boy, 6, and Girl, 13, Are Among Victims in Attack at Festival

California Festival Shooting: Two Children Among the Dead