California festival gunman made social media posts before killing

Associated Press
Monday, July 29, 2019 4:51 p.m. | Monday, July 29, 2019 4:51 p.m.

FBI personnel pass a ticket booth at the Gilroy Garlic Festival Monday, July 29, 2019 in Calif., the morning after a gunman killed at least three people, including a 6-year-old boy, and wounding about 15 others. A law enforcement official identified the gunman, who was shot and killed by police, as Santino William Legan.

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Police stand guard outside Gilroy High School following a deadly shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, Calif., on Sunday, July 28, 2019.

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Mayor of Gilroy Roland Velasco talks to the media at a reunification center at Gavilan College in Gilroy, Calif., on Sunday, July 28, 2019. People were directed to the center following a deadly shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Mario Tama | Getty Images

Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee speaks as Gilroy Mayor Roland Velasco looks on at a press conference the day after a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on July 29, 2019 in Gilroy, Calif. Three victims were killed and at least a dozen were wounded before police officers killed a suspect.

GILROY, Calif. — The gunman in the California festival shooting appears to have posted two photos on Instagram that day, including one minutes before he opened fire.

Police say Santino William Legan killed three victims and wounded 12 others Sunday at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Legan’s since-deleted Instagram account says he is Italian and Iranian. It also shows a photo he posted earlier depicting Smokey the Bear in front of a “fire danger” sign. In the caption, Legan said to read “Might is Right,” a book published in the 1800s.

Santino William Legan has been identified as the 19-year-old suspect in the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting that left 3 people dead. Legan, a Gilroy native, was killed by police. He posted on Instagram about the festival before the shooting https://t.co/m5YpagxtsS pic.twitter.com/S9P6ZXeued

— Tom Cleary (@tomwcleary) July 29, 2019

The misogynist and anti-Semitic work is used by neo-Nazis and white supremacists on extremist sites.

Minutes before the shooting, he posted a photo from the festival: “Ayyy garlic festival time” and “come get wasted on overpriced (stuff).”

Gilroy Mayor Roland Velasco told a press conference Monday that gun violence is an epidemic in the United States and it’s “beyond sad” that a charitable event such as the Gilroy Garlic Festival was targeted.

NEW: Sources tell @CBSNews the suspect has been identified as Santino William Legan. Police say he killed three people at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. One of them was just six years old. At least 15 people were hurt in the chaos.https://t.co/0ddruXJWRc pic.twitter.com/XAGB0uE7xf

— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) July 29, 2019

The gunman opened fire Sunday as the festival was in its closing hours, sending the crowd scattering.

Three police officers immediately engaged and killed the gunman, who was armed with an assault-type rifle.

The mayor commended the officers’ “remarkable bravery” in running toward the shooter and says they undoubtedly saved many lives by putting their own lives in danger.

Meanwhile, one of the three people killed in a shooting at California’s Gilroy Garlic Festival has been identified as a recent graduate of a college in upstate New York.

Keuka College President Amy Storey says in statement Monday that Trevor Irby, a biology major who graduated in 2017, was among the victims of the Sunday shooting.

Keuka College is about 70 miles southwest of Syracuse.

The others killed were a 6-year-old boy, Stephen Romero, and a 13-year-old girl whose name has not been released.