https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/29/multiple-people-reportedly-injured-shooting-california-food-festival/?noredirect=on'Nothing short of horrific’: Three dead, at least 15 injured in shooting at California food festival
GILROY, Calif. — The late afternoon sun beat down on Julissa Contreras as she browsed the offerings from a barbecue food tent on Sunday at the Gilroy Garlic Festival with her father and her boyfriend.
Then, Contreras said she noticed a man emerging from behind a row of tents at the popular summertime event in Gilroy, Calif. He was dressed in a military-style outfit and appeared to be holding an assault rifle, she told The Washington Post. Four loud cracks rang out in quick succession. The man was shooting “left to right and right to left,” she said.
“Some people immediately knew what was going on and saw the guy and ran,” Contreras said. “Some people were still sitting there unsure.”
The shooting left three people dead — including a 6-year-old boy — and at least 15 injured, local officials said. One gunman was killed by officers at the scene, Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said early Monday morning.
“It’s sort of a nightmare that you hope you never have to live in reality,” Smithee said at a news conference.
Police are still searching for a possible second suspect, although it’s unclear if that person also fired on the crowd or assisted the shooter. “We believe based on witness statements that there was a second individual involved in some way,” Smithee said. “We just don’t know in what way.”
At this point in the investigation, Smithee said he has “no idea” what the shooter’s motive was.
The first reports of gunshots at the festival came in around 5:41 p.m. local time, just as the event was wrapping up, Smithee said. He added that officers already stationed at the festival “engaged the suspect in less than a minute.” More than a dozen ambulances and fire trucks were also dispatched to the scene located about 30 miles southeast of San Jose, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
