The man who inexplicably killed three people, including two children, by firing a rifle into a crowd at the Gilroy Garlic Festival died in a fierce gun battle with three officers, the city’s police chief said, as more details about the shooter’s life and background came into focus.

Santino William Legan was the man who opened fire with an assault-type rifle at Sunday’s close of the three-day festival before three Gilroy police officers, armed with handguns, exchanged gunfire with the shooter and killed him. He was the 19-year-old grandson of former Santa Clara County Supervisor Tom Legan, who died last year.

The three people killed were 6-year-old Stephen Romero and 13-year-old Keyla Salazar, both of San Jose, and 25-year-old Trevor Irby, of the town of Romulus in upstate New York.

“When the call came in our closest team of officers responded immediately and engaged the suspect in less than a minute,” Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said. “The suspect was armed with an assault-type rifle. He fired at the officers with the rifle and three officers engaged the suspect. And despite being outgunned — they were using handguns against his rifle — they were able to fatally wound the suspect.”

Smithee added that the quick action by his officers prevented a tragedy that could “have been so much worse so fast.”

The chief said the gun used was what he described as an SKS AK-47 style assault rifle “that had been purchased legally in Nevada on July 9.” The District Attorney’s Office in Mineral County, Nevada confirmed that FBI agents early Monday raided a unit in a triplex in Walker Lake that Legan was believed to have used “during the days prior” to the Gilroy shootings.

Around the same time, officers and agents from multiple law-enforcement agencies searched the Gilroy home of Santino Legan’s family Monday morning. Legan grew up in Gilroy, although it’s unclear when he moved to Nevada and when he returned, Smithee said. He would have likely had to have been a resident of Nevada to purchase the gun legally.

At a news conference Monday afternoon, Smithee said police were “no closer to determining whether there was or was not a second shooter, and if there was, what involvement they may have had.” However, a law enforcement source told this news organization that Santino Legan is believed to be the only shooter. Court records show no adult criminal history for Santino Legan in Santa Clara County.

County health system spokesperson Joy Alexiou confirmed that 19 people from the festival were sent to two county hospitals, St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy and Valley Medical Center in San Jose. Of the three fatal gunshot victims, one died at St. Louise. Five patients remain at VMC, with one in critical condition, one in serious condition and one in fair condition. The other two requested privacy about their conditions.

The patients taken to VMC ranged in age from 12 to 69. One patient has been discharged from VMC, and three people with gunshot wounds have been discharged from St. Louise. Eight other patients went to St. Louise with non-gunshot injuries and were treated and released. Hospital officials said Monday that many of the surviving shooting victims have improved since being admitted.

Gov. Gavin Newsom visited victims at the San Jose hospital Monday to offer comfort, and in remarks to reporters afterward characterized his conversations with them.

“Nothing I can say can change what’s happened. I don’t know what I can possibly say to make you feel better except, God bless you, and I’m so sorry, not only what’s happened to you, but what’s happening in this country, in this state, in this nation of ours,” he said. “We’re here for you.”

At Monday’s press conference, Craig Fair, deputy special agent in charge at the FBI’s San Francisco office, said he had a team of 30 people in the field gathering evidence. He said the team was looking for “motivation, ideological leanings” of the suspect and whether he had been “affiliated with anyone or any group.”

“That still has to be ruled out or determined at this point,” Fair said.

Fair said witness photos and videos can be uploaded for the FBI’s review at fbi.gov/gilroy. Information about the shooter can be relayed to Gilroy police at 408-846-0583.

In a post on his Instagram page days before the shooting, a user identified as Santino William Legan told followers to “Read Might is Right by Ragnar Redbeard,” an apparent reference to the racist manifesto “Might is Right or The Survival of the Fittest,” written in 1890. The work, written under a pseudonym, has become a key part of the modern white supremacist and Neo-Nazi canon, and is frequently mentioned on extremist websites.

In his Instagram post, which has since been taken down, Legan also used racial and misogynistic slurs to describe “hordes” of Silicon Valley workers and people of mixed race origin “overcrowding” towns. The post was accompanied by a photo of a Smokey Bear sign warning of high fire danger.

In a post dated Sunday, Legan referenced the Gilroy festival.“Ayyy garlic festival,” the post read. “Come get wasted on overpriced shit.”

When asked if Legan targeted any particular group of people at the festival, Smithee said, “The descriptions that have been given to me, it appeared as though it was random, but I think we’re still too early in the investigation to say that definitively.”

The suspect’s grandfather, Tom Legan, was a county supervisor in the 1980s. During his second term, Tom Legan was charged with molesting a female relative, but was acquitted of the charges in 1988. Days later, he lost his bid for re-election.

Police exit a home on the 300 block of Churchill Place in Gilroy, Calif., on Monday, July 29, 2019. Police are searching for evidence at the home of the suspected gunman Santino William Legan who killed three people at yesterday's Gilroy Garlic Festival. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

Police enter a home on the 300 block of Churchill Place in Gilroy, Calif., on Monday, July 29, 2019. Police are searching for evidence at the home of the suspected gunman Santino William Legan who killed three people at yesterday's Gilroy Garlic Festival. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

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Police search a car registered to Thomas Michael Legan, the father of Santino William Legan, at a home on the 300 block of Churchill Place in Gilroy, Calif., on Monday, July 29, 2019. Police are searching for evidence at the home of the suspected gunman Santino William Legan who killed three people at yesterday's Gilroy Garlic Festival. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)



An unidentified person retrieves a dog after exiting a home on the 300 block of Churchill Place in Gilroy, Calif., on Monday, July 29, 2019. Police are searching for evidence at the home of the suspected gunman Santino William Legan who killed three people at yesterday's Gilroy Garlic Festival. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

Kawika Palacios, of Gilroy, looks out his window as police search the home on the 300 block of Churchill Place in Gilroy, Calif., on Monday, July 29, 2019. Police are searching for evidence at the home of the suspected gunman Santino William Legan who killed three people at yesterday's Gilroy Garlic Festival. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

Police search a car registered to Thomas Michael Legan, the father of Santino William Legan, at a home on the 300 block of Churchill Place in Gilroy, Calif., on Monday, July 29, 2019. Police are searching for evidence at the home of the suspected gunman Santino William Legan who killed three people at yesterday's Gilroy Garlic Festival. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)



Police exit a home on the 300 block of Churchill Place in Gilroy, Calif., on Monday, July 29, 2019. Police are searching for evidence at the home of the suspected gunman Santino William Legan who killed three people at yesterday's Gilroy Garlic Festival. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

A police car is parked outside a home on the 300 block of Churchill Place in Gilroy, Calif., on Monday, July 29, 2019. Police are searching for evidence at the home of the suspected gunman Santino William Legan who killed three people at yesterday's Gilroy Garlic Festival. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

Gilroy Mayor Roland Velasco proclaimed a local emergency Monday morning. “I would ask for the thoughts and prayers of the community as our officers continue to investigate this tragic and senseless crime,” he said.

The shooting sent hundreds of panicked festival-goers running for cover. Among the dead was Stephen, whose mother and grandmother were also shot and were being treated at Valley Medical Center in San Jose.

The Romeros, including Stephen, are cousins of San Jose City Councilmember Maya Esparza, according to a Facebook post she wrote Monday morning.

“Heartache and prayers for my cousins who were wounded yesterday and losing my little cousin, only 6 years old,” Esparza wrote. “And I’m angry, so angry. This violence has to stop. How do some people have such little regard for life.”

A GoFundMe campaign for the Romero family has been launched by the South County Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat in Gilroy.

Kueka College, located in New York State west of where Irby lived, confirmed in a statement Monday that the 2017 biology graduate died in the shooting. The school also stated that when Irby was wounded, he was attending the festival with a woman who also attended the college and that a campus vigil was planned for the near future.

HELP FOR VICTIMS

A family assistance center will be hosted at Rucker Elementary School, 325 Santa Clara Ave. in Gilroy, through at least Friday for those affected by the Gilroy Garlic Festival shootings. The American Red Cross, the District Attorney’s Office Victim Services Unit, and county behavioral health services will offer grief counseling, help filing claims for state funds to help pay medical and counseling bills and for other assistance, and referrals to medical, counseling and other assistance providers.

Starting Monday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., the center will be open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and could be extended after that as needed. For more information, call 408-209-8356.

Witnesses reported that the gunman appeared to be firing at random after suddenly appearing from behind a stage on the final evening of the three-day event that draws 100,000 people each year.

Natalie Martinez, a longtime Gilroy resident, said she had gone to get food and was separated from her two daughters when the shooting began.

“I ran to find the girls … and we basically ran into each other,” she said. “I thought, we’re open prey. It was awful.”

Some witnesses said the gunman quietly and calmly went about his shooting spree.

“He didn’t say anything,” Candace Marquez told KTVU, describing how the shooter began loading what looked like a ammunition clip into his weapon. “He was very quiet. If we would have said a word, he would have shot us.”

Leslie Andres, 12, was shot in the leg while at the festival with several friends and family, her sister Yasmin Medellin said, while on her way to visit her at Valley Medical Center in Monday.

“The bullet went in and out,” she said, adding that Leslie is expected to be released Tuesday. “We tried asking her what happened but she’s not saying much.”

Los Altos resident Troy Towner started a GoFundMe page for his sister, Wendy, who along with her husband, Francisco Aguilera, was wounded by the shooter’s gunfire. On the page, Towner said his sister was out of surgery “but will have long term nerve and muscle damage to her leg. Her husband had more severe damage to his femoral artery,” but “with many surgeries and amazing doctors we have some good results. It will be a long road ahead in PT, skin grafts and plastic surgery for both.”

He shared how his sister described the attack: “A man was climbing over the fence in the last hour of a 3 day HOT Garlic festival. My sister, her husband and son were sitting down to catch their breath after a long weekend. She was at the festival selling Habanero and Garlic Honey for her business, The Honey Ladies. Wendy, told the gunman, ‘No, you can’t do that!’ as she saw him climb the fence with a gun.”

The man “opened fire on them, hitting both her and her husband. Their 3 year old son was dragged under the table by a brave 10 year old girl, that probably saved his life,” Towner wrote. “He wanted to run to Mommy and Daddy. The shooter then approached closer, and said ‘are you alright?’ ”

He said his sister Wendy was shot once in the leg while her husband sustained bullet wounds to his shoulder, femoral artery and lower leg.

News of the shooting, and particularly the young age of the victims, shocked a country that has been dealing with mass shootings on an almost regular basis in recent years. Social-media outlets overflowed with reactions, not just condolences to those who lost loved ones in the attack, but also praise for the police officers who quickly stopped the attack as well as political commentary from both sides on gun violence and how to stem it.

“The shooter, reportedly dressed in military garb and carrying an assault-type rifle, is the result of a gun industry that embraces militarization and heightened lethality in the design, production, and marketing of its products,” said Violence Policy Center Executive Director Josh Sugarmann in a statement. “Until the gun industry is held fully accountable for its dangerous actions, these horrific attacks will continue unabated.”

Several presidential candidates spoke out about the shooting, a tragedy that could be discussed in this week’s Democratic debate on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

We’re still waiting on all the details from Gilroy, but my heart is already breaking for the victims and their families and the survivors. The gun violence epidemic in this country is out of control. Please be safe and take care of one another. https://t.co/lrOA0gh6VD — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) July 29, 2019

At a press conference Sunday evening, Brian Bowe, the festival’s executive director, described Gilroy as “an amazing, tightly-knit community. We are family. We have had the wonderful opportunity in this community to celebrate our family through our Garlic Festival, and for over four decades that festival has been our annual family reunion. It’s such a sad, just horribly upsetting circumstance that this happened on the third and final day of this year’s festival.”

Andrew Sanchez, 19, lives in a home behind the suspect’s house in Gilroy and said he can see their yard from his. He told this news organization that while he didn’t know the man or his family, the home seemed quiet.

“Thankfully we went to see a baseball game” on Sunday, Sanchez said. “Otherwise we most likely would’ve been” at the festival. He said his mother was still very shaken.

“She’s very scared,” he said. “It makes everyone sick.”

Sanchez said he thinks that despite the tragedy, the “festival will come back and be bigger than ever. The garlic festival means so much to so many people.”

Staff writers Emily DeRuy, Thy Vo, Leonardo Castañeda, Joseph Geha, Jason Green, Maggie Angst and Casey Tolan contributed to this report.

For community members needing support or counseling services, behavioral health clinicians are available at Live Oak High School, 1505 E. Main Ave. in Morgan Hill and Christopher High School, 850 Day Rd. in Gilroy. People can also get connected to services by calling 800-704-0900, and selecting option 2. The Suicide and Crisis Hotline can be reached at 855-278-4204 or by texting RENEW to 741741.