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What to Know About the Gilroy Garlic Festival Shooting Gilroy Festival Shooting: What We Know and Don’t
(32 minutes later)
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Late on Sunday afternoon, another mass shooting shook another California community where residents said such violence was previously unthinkable. Late on Sunday afternoon, a mass shooting shook another California community, where residents said such violence was previously unthinkable. Here’s what we know and don’t know about the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, which is located about 30 miles southeast of San Jose. We’ll continue to update this with new developments.
What happened? What we know:
As the 41st annual Gilroy Garlic Festival wound down, gunshots rang out, sending festival goers fleeing. The police said at least three people were killed and 12 people were wounded. A suspect — who was not identified — was also killed, the authorities said. • As the 41st annual Gilroy Garlic Festival wound down, gunshots rang out, sending festival goers fleeing. The police said at least three people were killed and 12 people were wounded. A suspect — who was not identified — was also killed, the authorities said.
Among the dead was a six-year-old boy, according to NBC Bay Area. • Among the dead was a 6-year-old boy, Stephen Romero. The boy’s mother was shot in the stomach and his grandmother in a leg, his father said.
The gunman, who was carrying an assault-type rifle when he was shot and killed by the police, appeared to have cut through a fence to enter the festival, the Gilroy Police Department said. [Read about the 6-year-old boy who was shot in the back.]
An investigation continued through the night after the authorities said witnesses reported seeing a second gunman, although that wasn’t confirmed. • The gunman was carrying an assault-type rifle when he was shot and killed by the police. He appeared to have cut through a fence to enter the festival, the Gilroy Police Department said.
[Read The Times’s full story about the shooting here.] • An investigation continued through Sunday night, after the authorities said witnesses reported seeing a second gunman.
What is the Gilroy Garlic Festival? • Witnesses described a chaotic scene. Video shows people scattering and trying to hide. One festival attendee, Olivia Chiu, said gunshots seemed to come from a central area near food and merchandise vendors. “Everyone was in a state of panic and trying to escape out of the festival to a safer area,” she said.
The Gilroy Garlic Festival was founded in 1979 by Rudolph J. Melone, who had moved to Gilroy several years earlier as president of Gavilan Community College, and started the event after reading about a similar celebration in France, according to The Times’s obituary for Mr. Melone. • The president tweeted about the shooting, and other California officials weighed in.
In the decades since, the festival has become an internationally known destination, drawing roughly 100,000 visitors each year — but it’s one that hasn’t lost its importance for locals. Senator Kamala Harris on Twitter described the shooting as “horrific,” adding that, “Our country has a gun violence epidemic that we cannot tolerate.”
“It’s like a second high school reunion for a lot of people,” Emilia Chavez, a 34-year-old who grew up in Gilroy, told me on Sunday evening. “It’s hard to go and not see someone you recognize.” What We Don’t Know
She and her husband headed home from this year’s event on Sunday just a few hours before shots were fired, she said. • The gunman’s identity has not been released. It also was not clear whether a second person was involved, as witnesses indicated to the authorities on Sunday night.
• Any possible motivation for the attack.
What’s the Gilroy Garlic Festival?
The Gilroy Garlic Festival was founded in 1979 by Rudolph J. Melone, who had moved to Gilroy several years earlier as president of Gavilan Community College. He started the event after reading about a similar celebration in France, according to The Times’s obituary for Mr. Melone.
In the decades since, the festival has become an internationally known destination, drawing roughly 100,000 visitors each year. But it has not lost its importance for locals.
“It’s like a second high school reunion for a lot of people,” said Emilia Chavez, a 34-year-old who grew up in Gilroy, a small city in the midst of verdant farmland south of San Jose. “It’s hard to go and not see someone you recognize.”
She and her husband left this year’s event just a few hours before shots were fired, she said Sunday evening.
The festival is also a crucial fund-raising opportunity for local charities, and a staple of local students’ community service résumés.The festival is also a crucial fund-raising opportunity for local charities, and a staple of local students’ community service résumés.
In junior high school, Ms. Chavez said she sold lemonade to raise money for a scholarship federation. In high school, she sold Pepsi for the choir. While in middle school, Ms. Chavez said she sold lemonade to raise money for a scholarship federation. In high school, she sold Pepsi for the choir.
In Gilroy, a small city in the midst of verdant farmland south of San Jose, Ms. Chavez said she never questioned the safety of the community’s biggest event. Ms. Chavez said she never questioned the safety of the community’s biggest event.
“The biggest problem had been just people sneaking in,” she said.“The biggest problem had been just people sneaking in,” she said.
How does this fit into the broader context of gun violence in California?How does this fit into the broader context of gun violence in California?
The shooting in Gilroy took place days after four people were killed and two people were injured in a rampage through the San Fernando Valley that the authorities say started when a man first shot his parents and brother, then shot an acquaintance a few miles away before opening fire on a bus, The Los Angeles Times reported.The shooting in Gilroy took place days after four people were killed and two people were injured in a rampage through the San Fernando Valley that the authorities say started when a man first shot his parents and brother, then shot an acquaintance a few miles away before opening fire on a bus, The Los Angeles Times reported.
In April, a shooting at a synagogue in Poway prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to push for new funding for security for religious organizations.In April, a shooting at a synagogue in Poway prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to push for new funding for security for religious organizations.
At the time, Mark Baldassare, president and survey director for the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, told me that high-profile shootings have a kind of cumulative effect on public opinion. At the time, Mark Baldassare, president and survey director for the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, said that high-profile shootings have a kind of cumulative effect on public opinion.
Even in California, which already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, there’s strong support for more controls.Even in California, which already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, there’s strong support for more controls.
(We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.)
• What does Senator Kamala Harris believe? She’s pragmatic — “not ideological” — in her approach to policy. The question is how that will play with Democratic voters who are feeling ambitious. [The New York Times]
• Thousands of California students who are taking online classes at out-of-state colleges abruptly lost federal financial aid last week. They were caught in the middle of a regulatory battle between the nation’s biggest teachers’ union and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after she moved to delay Obama administration-backed rules aimed at protecting such students. [The New York Times]
• An off-duty Los Angeles police officer was shot and killed as he waited in line at a taco stand early Saturday morning. Earlier, he had confronted a tagger. The authorities are still searching for a suspect; investigators said they believe the gunman is a member of the Avenues gang. A second man was also hospitalized with gunshot wounds. [The Associated Press]
• The policeman, Juan Diaz, was remembered at a vigil as a kind and passionate young officer who was “just trying to do the right thing.” [KTLA]
• Italian authorities say two teenage tourists from California admitted to killing a police officer in Rome. [The New York Times]
• Both graduated from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, the school said. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
• In California’s oil country, the biggest spill in years elicits defiance from community members who see it as an excuse to crack down on the industry. “Environmentalists have it all wrong.” [The Los Angeles Times]
• A portion of the 60 freeway in the Inland Empire that was closed over the weekend reopened early. But drivers still have seven more weekends of road closures in the area to look forward to. [The Los Angeles Times]
• The lie at the heart of “The Farewell,” gets at a cultural truth about many East Asian families. Brian X. Chen, who writes about consumer tech for The Times, wrote that watching the film surfaced painful — but illuminating — memories of his own childhood. [The New York Times]
• Denise Richards is a more disarmingly real Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, which makes her kind of an Un-Real Housewife. [The New York Times]
• How do you pronounce “Los Feliz?” There’s the right way and there are, well, other potentially correct ways. Here’s an extensive guide to some of L.A.’s most debated pronunciations. [LAist]
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Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.