California mass shooter identified as teenager; victims include 6-year-old boy

A 19-year-old was identified Monday as the suspected gunman in the California festival shooting that killed at least three people, including a young boy, and wounded more than a dozen others.

The shooter was identified as Santino William Legan, law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News, CNN and The Associated Press. Investigators searched the home of Legan’s father in Gilroy hours after the shooting on Sunday, the sources said. On Monday morning, several police cars remained outside the home and investigators could be leaving the house with paper bags and other evidence.

Law enforcement officials said they were still searching for Legan’s motive in the attack. However, Instagram posts bearing Legan’s name mentioned a white supremacist book and showed a picture of people walking around the popular outdoor Gilroy Garlic Festival, shortly before the shooting began.

A 6-year-old boy, Stephen Romero, was among the deceased victims from the gunfire that erupted around 5:40 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday, Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said. “Many officers in the park at the time this occurred” responded within a minute and killed the gunman, he added.

“My son had his whole life to live and he was only 6,” said the boy’s father, Alberto Romero, “that’s all I can say.” A​​​​​​dded Maribel Romero, the boy’s grandmother: “He was a really happy, loving boy. I want justice for my grandson.”

In addition to Legan, witnesses reported seeing a possible second suspect who has not yet been identified or found, though the extent to which this second person may have been involved or participated in the shooting is unknown, said Smithee.

Josh Campbell, a former FBI supervisory special agent, told CNN that while a second individual may have been an accomplice of some sort, “we know there’s almost always never a second shooter” in these types of mass killings.

Police noted the shooter was prepared, as demonstrated by the fact that he cut through a fence that borders a parking lot next to a creek in order to avoid security and metal detectors at the festival.

The gunman appeared to randomly target people when he fired with an assault rifle at the end of the three-day festival that attracts more than 100,000 people to the city known as the “Garlic Capital of the World,” Smithee said.

The wounded were taken to multiple hospitals, and their conditions ranged from fair to critical, with some undergoing surgery. At least five were treated and released.

President Donald Trump condemned the “wicked murderer.”

“We express our deepest sadness and sorrow for the families who lost a precious loved one in the horrific shooting last night in Gilroy, California,” Trump said before an event at the White House.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the bloodshed “nothing short of horrific” and said he was grateful for the police response.