Overview

The Gilroy Garlic Festival Shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on July 28th, 2019, at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California. At least three were killed and 11 were injured in the shooting.

Background

On July 28th, 2019, a gunman opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California, located near San Jose. Held in Christmas Hill Park, the Garlic Festival is among the United States' most famous food festivals, drawing more than 125,000 visitors a year, according to the New York Times.^[1] At least three people were killed in the shooting, including a six-year-old boy, and as many as 11 were injured. Police shot and killed the gunman at the scene.

Developments

Suspect

Speaking to CNN,^[2] Law enforcement officials named 19-year-old Santino William Legan as the suspected shooter. The following morning, CNN reported that police cars were seen outside of Legan's father's home.

Police believe an accomplice escaped the scene.

The suspect's Instagram^[12] account opened by the suspect four days prior to the attack also became the subject of scrutiny as many looked for the shooter's motive. The account features one photograph of the festival with the caption, "Ayyy garlic festival time Come get wasted on overpriced shit" (shown below, left). Another post featured the caption, "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 twat*s?" According to Heavy,^[3] Right Is Might is a white supremacist text. They write, "The book is described as being akin to Social Darwinism and includes misogynistic and racist principles “claiming that the woman and the family as a whole is the property of the man and proclaiming the innate superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. The book also contains many strong anti-Semitic statements."

Online Reaction

During the event, Twitter user @wavyia tweeted two videos from the scene. The first received more than 1 million views, 10,000 likes and 5,200 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/egTUTObMaq

— niah ㊝ (@wavyia) July 29, 2019

That day, Redditor ^[4] comediekid posted about the shooting in the /r/news subreddit. The post received more than 38,000 points (92% upvoted) and 13,000 comments.

Government Response

That evening, United States President Donald Trump tweeted,^[5] "Law Enforcement is at the scene of shootings in Gilroy, California. Reports are that shooter has not yet been apprehended. Be careful and safe!" The tweet received more than 70,000 likes and 14,000 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, left).

U.S. Senator for California Kamala Harris tweeted,^[6] "Simply horrific. I'm grateful to the first responders who are on the scene in Gilroy, and my thoughts are with that community tonight. Our country has a gun violence epidemic that we cannot tolerate." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 9,000 likes and 2,000 retweets (shown below, center).

California Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted,^[7] "This is nothing short of horrific. Tonight, CA stands with the Gilroy community. My office is monitoring the situation closely. Grateful for the law enforcement’s efforts and their continued work as this situation develops." The tweet received more than 7,000 likes and 1,900 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, right).

Scott Adams' WhenHub Tweet

That evening, Dilbert creator and conservative writer and thinker Scott Adams tweeted,^[8] "If you were a witness to the #GilroyGarlicFestivalshooting please sign on to Interface by WhenHub (free app) and you can set your price to take calls. Use keyword Gilroy." The tweet received more than 530 likes and 175 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

Many online criticized Adams, claiming that he was using the shooting to promote his application WhenHub (examples below).

Adams defended the app, tweeting,^[9] "It’s a news gathering tool, like CNN and FOXNEws (among other uses). No fake outrage necessary. This is one of its intended purposes" (shown below, right).

Several media outlets covered the controversy, including Gizmodo^[10] and The Daily Beast.^[11]

Search Interest

External References