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Chief Scot Smithee of the Gilroy Police Department identified the perpetrator of Sunday’s attack as Santino William Legan, 19. The gunman, who also wounded 12 people, carried out the shooting with a semi-automatic rifle he had purchased legally this month in Nevada, the police chief said.
Three officers confronted the gunman only a minute after the shooting began at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, the chief said. “Even though they were outgunned, with handguns against a rifle, those three officers were able to fatally wound that suspect,” Smithee said. “It could have gone so much worse so fast.”
He said the gunman’s motive was not known but indicated he was a resident of Gilroy, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Jose.
The Garlic Festival, founded in 1979, is an internationally known event, drawing roughly 100,000 visitors each year.
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The 6-year-old victim, Stephen Romero, was shot in the back, said his father, Alberto. Among the dozen people wounded were Alberto Romero’s wife, who was shot in the stomach, and his mother-in-law, who was shot in the leg.
“My son had his whole life to live,” Romero told NBC Bay Area.
California has, by some yardsticks, the strictest gun laws in the country.
With few exceptions, it is illegal in the state to own, possess, lend or import guns like the one described Monday by Smithee. Nevada does not have any similar ban, however.
The description provided by the chief suggested tit was a semi-automatic weapon, allowing the gunman to fire one shot with each pull of the trigger. California bans firearms that fit the state’s definition of an “assault weapon.” That includes many of the most popular semi-automatic rifles and others that have magazines that can be easily swapped out and which include features like a pistol grip or folding stock.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.