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Police say Santino William Legan, 19, shot and killed three people and wounded several others in a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California, according to CBS News. The shooting Sunday night on the final day of the annual charity event at Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy left three dead, 12 injured and the suspected shooter, Legan, who shot and killed himself. Several others were injured in the chaos after shots were fired, but were not shot, authorities said.
The dead include 6-year-old Stephen Romero. Romero’s grandmother and mother were also shot, but are expected to survive. A GoFundMe was established to help the family pay for the child’s funeral. The two others killed are Keyla Salazar, 13, and Trevor Irby, a recent college graduate.
Police said Legan was armed with an AK 47-type assault rifle that was “purchased legally” in Nevada on July 9. Legan had rented an apartment in the Nevada desert, hundreds of miles away from his hometown of Gilroy.
Gilroy Police Chief Scott Smithee said Sunday night that Legan “used a tool to cut through a fence to gain access” to the festival grounds.
Police had been hunting a second suspect since the shooting, but as of Monday morning, police not only have not announced a capture, Smithee said “we really don’t know” if there is a second suspect. And by Tuesday, authorities were certain that Santino acted alone.
A motive for the shooting has not yet been made public, but a search warrant executed at an apartment he’d rented in in Walker City, Nevada found a a gun light, knife, bulletproof vest, gas mask, empty ammo boxes, gun pamphlets, an empty Valium bottle, electronic devices and media on white supremacy, according to the Mineral County District Attorney’s Office. State and federal officials and agents believe he may have had plans for a larger attack.
The search warrant also turned up what’s reported to be a “mysterious letter from Virginia.” That could be Virginia Holden, Legan’s grandmother. The adopted daughter of actor William Holden, Virginia married Legan’s maternal grandfather, an Iranian-born economics professor. Legan’s mother is the daughter of Virginia Holden, which makes Legan the great-grandson of actor William Holden. Read more about his family below.
Legan opened fire at about 5:40 p.m. local time at the garlic festival, which was to end at 6 p.m. In a creek near the park, police found a bag of ammunition and in his car, a shotgun.
On the day of the attack, one witness who told reporters they’d come face to face with the gunman and asked why he was doing this was told, “Because I’m really angry.”
According to a CNN report, a neighbor of the Legan’s recognized the young man saying that while she did not know the family personally, she remarked that Legan and his siblings are “…very nice kids. When I found out this morning, I was shocked. This is a quiet place.”
Here’s what you need to know about Santino Legan and the shooting: