Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting downs at least 15 people

Three people were killed and 15 others injured in a shooting attack Sunday afternoon at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California before police killed the gunman.

Police on Monday identified the shooting suspect as Santino William Legan, 19, The Associated Press reported.

Chief Scot Smithee of the Gilroy Police Department told reporters at a Sunday night press conference that officers at the festival engaged the suspect about a minute after the first shots were fired and killed him. 

“Many officers were at the festival, which accounts for the very quick response time,” Chief Smithee said.

An eyewitness named Cheryl told CNN that she had seen the police shoot a gunman in the head.

But police are still hunting for a possible second suspect, the chief added.

“We believe, based on witness statements that a second person was involved in some way,” Chief Smithee said. But “we don’t know what the involvement of the second suspect was.”

The gunman killed a 6-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s. There’s no immediate word on the other 15 people who were either wounded or suffered injuries such as scrapes and bruises.

The Bay Area’s NBC affiliate, citing family members, identified the 6-year-old victim as Stephen Romero.

Chief Smithee also did not describe a possible motive.

Eyewitnesses described the gunman as a white male in his 30s, clad in camouflage and wielding an assault weapon at Christmas Hill Park in the small town south of San Jose best known for the food-and-music festival. The event attracts around 100,000 people annually.

According to Chief Smithee, security at the festival was tight and entrance required passage through metal detectors. But the attacker or attackers were able to use an adjacent creek and then cut through a wire fence marking off the festival area.

“He pulled out a semi-automatic rifle and started shooting at everyone,” one eyewitness told a reporter for the San Francisco Bay Area’s NBC affiliate.”

Singer Jack Van Breen, whose band Tin Man was preparing an encore when the shots began, told the Associated Press that a man wearing a green shirt and grayish handkerchief around his neck fired into the food area with what looked like an assault rifle.

According to Mr. Van Breen, someone shouted at the gunman “Why are you doing this?” and the reply was “because I’m really angry.”

Heavy.com, citing police-scanner traffic, wrote that authorities were describing “two men, both white.”

“In one case, a young man with a beard, shoulder-length hair, and a hat. A man is described as wearing camouflage and carrying a long gun. Police were hunting the gunman in the creek on the north end of the park,” Heavy reported.

Joy Alexiou, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, told reporters that her hospital has received seven gunshot victims – five directly from the scene and two sent from another hospital. The victims’ conditions range from critical to fair.

At Stanford Hospital, spokeswoman Lisa Kim said the facility was treating two gunshot victims.

St. Louise Medical Center also is treating eight festivalgoers who were hurt trying to escape the scene, but not shot.

Eyewitness Miquita Price told CNN she and her family was about 15 feet from the shooter, whom she said was firing an assault rifle and dressed in military-style fatigues.

“There was blood everywhere. It was a mess,” she said, adding that she saw two people wounded and heard dozens of shots.

One eyewitness told the San Jose Mercury News that she had seen multiple casualties, including children.

“We were just leaving and we saw a guy with a bandana wrapped around his leg because he got shot. And there were people on the ground, crying,” 13-year-old Evenny Reyes of Gilroy said. “There was a little kid hurt on the ground. People were throwing tables and cutting fences to get out.”

• This article was based in part on wire service reports.