Police stay focused on a target after a shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California on July 28, 2019.
Noah Berger | Associated Press
Police and ambulances raced to a shooting at a food festival in California on Sunday, with four people reported dead and 15 injured, and video posted on social media showing people at the event running for cover as shots rang out.
Scot Smithee, Gilroy’s chief of police, said the four dead included the suspected gunman.
The shooting took place on the last day of the Gilroy Garlic Festival, an annual three-day event south of San Jose, where the gunman appeared to have cut through the fence to get into the festival, according to Smithee, who added that there may be one accomplice.
Aerial footage showed the festival grounds apparently deserted but with many emergency and police vehicles on surrounding streets and police in bullet-proof gear.
Footage uploaded to social media appeared to show festival attendees scattering in fear and confusion as loud popping sounds could be heard in the background.
“What’s going on?” a woman can be heard asking on one video. “Who’d shoot up a garlic festival?”
California Governor Gavin Newsom said his office was monitoring the situation closely. “This is nothing short of horrific,” Newsom wrote on Twitter.
On Sunday night following the reported shooting, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted: “Reports are that shooter has not yet been apprehended. Be careful and safe!”
Fireworks
Evenny Reyes, 13, told the San Jose Mercury News that at first she thought the gunfire was fireworks. But then she saw someone with a wounded leg.
“We were just leaving and we saw a guy with a bandana wrapped around his leg because he got shot,” Reyes told the newspaper. “There was a little kid hurt on the ground. People were throwing tables and cutting fences to get out.”
Another witness, Maximo Rocha, a volunteer with the Gilroy Browns youth football team, said he saw many people on the ground, but could not be sure how many may have been shot and how many were trying to protect themselves.
He told NBC Bay Area that “quite a few” were injured, “because I helped a few.”
One video posted on Twitter showed a blood-spattered woman sitting in the back of a semi-trailer and telling a man she had been shot in the hand.
Stage hand Shawn Viaggi told the Mercury News he heard gunshots and saw bullets hitting the ground. “I called out, ‘It’s a real gun, let’s get out of here,’ and we hid under the stage,” Viaggi told the newspaper, adding that he saw police officers trying to resuscitate one man.
Founded in 1979, the Gilroy Garlic Festival features food, drink, live entertainment and cooking competitions. It says it is hosted by volunteers and describes itself as the world’s greatest summer food festival.
It was being held at the outdoor Christmas Hill Park, where weapons of any kind are prohibited, according to the event’s website.
To provide a safe, family-friendly atmosphere, it said, entry was refused to anyone wearing clothing or paraphernalia indicating membership in a gang, including a motorcycle club.
Festival officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Gilroy is about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of San Jose.
— CNBC contributed to this report.
