Law Enforcement Identifies Gilroy Gunman Suspect: Report
Law enforcement has identified 19-year-old Santino William Legan as the suspected gunman behind the deadly shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in northern California, according to a Monday report from CBS News.
Web archive of what appears to be Legan’s now-deleted Instagram account show that he identified as Italian and Iranian. His most recent post was a photo of a sign featuring Smokey the Bear and a sign warning of high fire danger, reported Heavy.com.
“Read Might Is Right by Ragnar Redbeard,” the caption read. “Why overcrowd towns and pave more open space to make more room for hordes of mestizos and Silicon Valley white twats?”
“Might Is Right” is a book that’s more than 100 years old that has taken hold among white supremacists.
At least three people are dead and 15 are injured after a shooter opened fire at the final day of the festival, which draws crowds from out-of-state. Law enforcement are expected to share more information at a press conference at 10 a.m. local time.
Police shot and killed the gunman within a minute of shots going off, reported CBS News. It’s unknown whether he acted alone, although police believe an additional suspect may have been involved, reported NBC News.
One of the victims was 6-year-old Stephen Romero. His mother and grandmother were also hurt, reported NBC News.
HEARTBREAKING: A grandmother says she wants justice for her 6-year-old grandson, who was among the victims shot and killed at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Hear from her here: https://t.co/iF6nCLMmX9 pic.twitter.com/1N21GP1Uqs
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) July 29, 2019
Eleven people were taken to hospitals to be treated for gunshot wounds and three were released late Sunday, said Santa Clara County Public Health System spokeswoman Joy Alexiou. The other patients were still in critical condition, Alexiou said, according to NBC News.
“People started running down the street screaming. Some of them were bloody because they got shot. … Police from every neighboring city were coming through, so I was pretty much having to direct traffic and help people the best I could,” John Luc Chesson, a 17-year-old law enforcement explorer working security at the perimeter of the festival, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a phone interview Monday.
He and his twin Lacey Chesson, both law enforcement explorers, saw the aftermath of the shooting.
John, a Gilroy resident, said this was his second year working security at the festival. He said one of his classmates was injured in the shooting and taken to the hospital.
Lacey said she was in a car with another explorer when they started hearing something that sounded like fireworks over the sound of the music they were playing.
Then she heard over her radio, “Active shooting. Shots fired at the festival.”
She locked the car doors and was ready to hide under the seats if the shooter approached.
“You go to any event, you say, ‘Oh, it’s not going to happen. We’re going to be just fine,’ and then something happens, and you go, ‘Why?’” Lacey said.
Gilroy is the kind of town where everyone knows each other, she said. The garlic festival is what makes the town special, Lacey said.
“If I go [to the festival] next year, it’s gonna replay with me all day. … It’s such a family thing. People are with their families. … Then this happens and you have to start running, and you’re taking your kids with you, and everyone’s trampling over each other and screaming. It’s just going to be different now,” she said.
The Gilroy shooting comes just a day after a shooting at a community event in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Saturday night left one man dead and 11 people injured according to law enforcement.
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