‘I’m really angry’ Shots at festival

Four people, including suspect, killed at California food event

Four people, including a gunman, were killed and at least 15 others injured yesterday after a shooting that sent panicked people running at an annual food festival in Northern California.

The shooter used a rifle and gained entry to the packed festival by cutting through a fence to avoid the tight security, including metal detectors, police said.

Some witnesses reported a second suspect, Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said, but it was unclear whether that person opened fire. Police confronted the gunman within a minute of shots being fired.

Witnesses reported confusion and panic as shots rang out at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in the city of 50,000 located about 176km southeast of San Francisco.

The shooting occurred during the three-day celebration featuring food, cooking competitions and music that attracts more than 100,000 people. It was the final day of this year’s event.

The band Tin Man was just starting an encore when shots rang out.

Singer Jack van Breen said he saw a man wearing a green shirt and greyish

handkerchief around his neck fire into the food area with what looked like an assault rifle.

Van Breen and other members of the band hid under the stage. Van Breen says he heard someone shout: “Why are you doing this?”

He said the reply was: “because I’m really angry”.

His bandmate Vlad Malinovsky from Walnut Creek, California, said he heard a lot of shots and then it stopped. Later, law enforcement came by and told the band members and others hiding with them to come out with their hands up.

Police said a suspect was dead and that there was a possible second suspect.

Stanford Medical Centre has two patients being treated from the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, spokeswoman Julie Greicius said. She had no details on their injuries or conditions. Santa Clara Valley Medical Centre received five victims, spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said. She also had no information on their conditions.

Evenny Reyes of Gilroy, 13, told the Mercury News that she was with friends and relatives. “We were just leaving and we saw a guy with a bandana wrapped around his leg because he got shot. And there were people on the ground, crying. There was a little kid hurt on the ground. People were throwing tables and cutting fences to get out.”

Reyes said that she didn’t run at first because the gunshots sounded like fireworks. “It started going for five minutes, maybe three. It was like the movies — everyone was crying, people were screaming.”

Todd Jones, a sound engineer, said that he was at the front of the festival’s Vineyard stage when he heard what sounded like a firework. “But then it started to increase, more rapidly, which sounded more like gunfire, and at that point people realised what was happening.”

Natalie Martinez, a Gilroy Resident, told the Mercury News that she had gone to get food and separated from her two daughters. “I ran to find the girls and we basically ran into each other. I thought, We’re open prey. It was awful.”

Social media video showed people running for safety at the festival.