Family files lawsuit vs. festival organizers
It alleges security was ‘grossly deficient’ during shooting that killed teen
SAN JOSE >> The family of a young girl killed during the mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in 2019 has filed a lawsuit against its organizers, the city of Gilroy and a security company, claiming the festival was “grossly deficient” of a host of needed security measures that could have prevented the tragedy.
Attorneys filed the suit Thursday in Santa Clara County Superior Court on behalf of friends and family of 13-year-old Keyla Salazar, who was shot as she ran away from the shooter, 19-year-old Santino William Legan, and died at the festival with her mother at her side.
The suit alleges the perimeter of the July 28, 2019, festival, which took place at city-owned Christmas Hill Park, “was established by an inadequate, unstable, low-height, unsupported, chain-link fence that included a gate secured by a zip tie.”
Attorneys said in the suit that Legan was able to easily enter when he “cut thru the zip tie with bolt cutters,” and “his presence and entrance were concealed by
a wooded area” that didn’t have adequate guarding in the area leading to the Uvas Creek Park Preserve.
The lawsuit was filed by attorneys from three firms; Los Angeles-based McDonald Worley, Richard J. Plezia and Associates, and Owen and Associates, both of Texas.
Similar to another lawsuit filed against the festival organizers in November on behalf of other victims of the shooting, the suit filed this week said that the “already unsafe” perimeter was made worse by cars, box trucks and other obstructions organizers allowed to be placed near the fence where Legan entered.
“Among other things, a proper secure perimeter fence with a locked gate with clear sight lines that was appropriately monitored would have prevented the shooter from entering and this tragedy would not have occurred,” and could have been put in place for “minimal additional cost,” the complaint said.
Authorities said Legan fired 39 shots, fatally wounding Keyla as well as 6-year-old Stephen Romero, both of San Jose,
and 25-year-old New York resident Trevor Irby. Legan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound as Gilroy officers rushed to confront him.
The suit filed Thursday said Keyla was at the festival with her mother, Lorena Salazar; her younger sister Lyann Salazar; her mother’s boyfriend, Eduardo Ponce; and Ponce’s young daughter Dasha Pimentel.
Keyla was under a white shade tent just east of an inflatable slide in a play area when she heard gunshots ring out and ran.
“Tragically, while running she turned around and the shooter took aim and shot her, killing her.” Her mother stayed at her daughter’s side as she “lay on the ground with blood pouring from her body,” the complaint said.
Her family has described Keyla as a “smart, beautiful, vibrant young woman” whose “tender smile and charismatic personality conquered everyone’s heart.” Hundreds of family and friends gathered to mourn her death during a funeral service in August 2019.
When the shooting began, Ponce ran and grabbed his daughter and they took cover under a table, the complaint said, but he was shot in the arm, suffering “severe and permanent injuries.”
The lawsuit said the organizers of the three-day festival — which has occurred at the same park since 1979 and draws roughly 100,000 people annually — failed in their duty to protect attendees and vendors “from the foreseeable risks of mass shootings at large public events.”
Organizers used “inadequate and outdated security policies, procedures and safeguards” and a 34-year-old contract with the city to run the event, “which did not and could not contemplate the modern-day realities of an event of its magnitude,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages to pay for medical bills and therapy, past and future loss of earnings, as well as the costs for a funeral and burial of Keyla, among other things.
Organizers of the festival did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment for this story.
The Gilroy Garlic Festival was canceled for 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic and is tentatively set to resume July 2325, 2021, according to the event’s website.