On Sunday evening, tragedy struck at the Gilroy Garlic Festival after a 19-year-old, identified as Santino William Legan, opened fire on the crowd. The incident took place around 5:40 p.m., and claimed the lives of three, including a six-year-old boy.
According to CNN, 12 others were injured in the incident; however, within one minute, the suspect was shot and killed by police on the scene. Although witnesses claimed to have seen a second possible suspect- the person has not been identified, and as a result, officials have launched a manhunt. However, according to a former FBI supervisory special agent, “we know there’s almost always never a second shooter” in these types of mass shootings.
In the meantime, officials discovered an Instagram account that was created four days ago, under the suspect’s name. In fact, just before the attack, the page shared two messages about the festival, one targeting ‘mestizos,’ which is used to describe a person of mixed descent, commonly used for white and Hispanic or white and American Indian, and the other highlighting white supremacist text.
“Ayyyy garlic festival time. Come get wasted on overpriced shit,” one message read, underneath a photo of festivalgoers. Another, which was accompanied by a photo of Smokey, the Bear,” read: “Read Might is Right by Ragnar Redbeard. Why overcrowd towns and pave more open space to make room for hordes of mestizos and Silicon Valley white twats.”
According to CNN, “Right is Might,” which was first published in the 1800s, is reportedly white supremacist passage that attacks Jesus and Christianity, but promotes anarchy.
As of Monday morning, Gilroy police said the crime scene was still active. A motive has yet to be revealed.
