Santino William Legan

“	I'm really angry.	„
	~ Legan during the shooting.

Santino William Legan was the 19-year old perpetrator of a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on July 28, 2019. Legan killed three people and injured 17 others before committing suicide. Investigators have yet to determine Legan's motives, and the FBI has opened a domestic terrorism investigation into the incident.

Shooter profile

Legan spent most of his life in Gilroy, but in the months before the shooting lived in the remote town of Walker Lake in Mineral County, Nevada.

An Instagram account was opened four days before the shooting by a Santino William Legan of the same age, who self-identified as being of Italian and Iranian descent. On the day of the shooting, Legan made two posts to the account, one of which complained about the event congesting the countryside with "hordes of mestizos and Silicon Valley white twats" and instructed people to read the 19th-century book Might Is Right, a pseudonymous proto-fascist manifesto that promotes racial violence and anti-Semitism and is popular in white supremacist and neo-Nazi circles.

The shooting

The shooting occurred during the 41st annual gathering of the festival on Sunday, July 28, 2019—its third and final day—shortly before the scheduled closing at 6:00 p.m. The suspect reportedly entered the festival by cutting through a wire fence along Uvas Creek, thus evading security screening. Police believe he acted alone.

The gunman opened fire with a WASR-10 semi-automatic rifle, shooting 39 rounds. He had a 75-round drum magazine and five 40-round magazines. The gunman bought the gun in Fallon, Nevada, on July 9, three weeks before the festival. The possession and sale of the weapon are banned in California, but legal in Nevada. Eyewitnesses described a white man wearing a green shirt and a grayish handkerchief around his neck firing into the food area. Witnesses reported that he appeared to be firing at random.

Jack van Breen, the lead singer of the local band TinMan (which was performing an encore when the shooting began) told KPIX-TV that he heard someone shout, "Why are you doing this?" The gunman's response was, "Because I’m really angry."

Legan wore a bulletproof vest. Police at the scene engaged him within a minute of the start of the shooting, firing 18 rounds and hitting Legan several times. The police chief credited the fast response to a heavy police presence with "many, many officers in the park". The three officers who fired their handguns were placed on administrative leave. While initial reports indicated that the gunman was killed by the police, the Santa Clara County coroner reported on August 2 that the gunman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, after officers had already shot him multiple times.

Along with the Gilroy Police Department, the San Francisco Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and 30 FBI agents also responded to the scene.

Victims

Three people—Stephen Romero, age 6; Keyla Salazar, age 13; and Trevor Deon Irby, age 25—were killed. An additional 17 people were wounded.

The Santa Clara County Healthcare System's two hospitals treated 19 patients, including some who were treated but not admitted. The patients ranged in age from 12 to 69; 11 had gunshot injuries and eight had other injuries. Two victims were also reported hospitalized at Stanford Hospital.

Motive speculation

Investigators have not determined a motive for the attack. The investigation turned up evidence that Legan had been "exploring violent ideologies" and had created a list of potential targets, including the Garlic Festival as well as "religious organizations, courthouses, federal buildings and political institutions involving both the Republican and Democratic parties." Because of this list, a domestic terrorism probe has been opened.

Searches found that Legan owned both left-wing and right-wing literature, including reading material on white supremacy and Militant Islam. Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino stated that research has shown some mass shooters have "a broad range of motivations and, at times, conflicting ideologies, which can make it difficult to classify attacks and pinpoint their motivations.