California garlic festival shooting: Six-year-old boy among victims in deadly Gilroy attack

‘My son had his whole life to live and he was only six,’ father says after his child is killed in latest American mass shooting

Chris Riotta
New York
Monday 29 July 2019 18:56 BST
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Police chief says some witnesses have reported a possible second suspect in the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting

A boy who celebrated his sixth birthday just last month was among three people shot dead by a gunman who opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in northern California on Sunday, police said.

Steven Romero was described as a “loving boy” who had attended the festival with his mother and grandmother over the weekend, according to news reports.

“There’s nothing I really can do besides try to be with him until I can put him in his resting spot, wherever that is,” his father, Alberto Romero, told NBC Bay Area.

“My son had his whole life to live and he was only six,” Mr Romero added. “That’s all I can say.”

At least three people were killed and 12 others wounded in the mass shooting in Gilroy, located 30 miles from San Jose, California, after a gunman cut through a security fence and opened fire on the last night of the popular annual event, just as attendees were leaving the venue. The suspect was later identified as 19-year-old Santino William Legan, the Associated Press reported. The other victims included a 13-year-old female and a male in their 20s, police said, while declining to provide their identities.

The boy’s mother was shot twice in the hand, while his grandmother was shot in the leg, his father said.

A suspect was shot and killed by police during the attack. Officials said another suspect may have been involved in the shooting.

The festival remained an active crime scene on Monday morning.

Police did not immediately provide the identities of the other two victims in Sunday’s attack, the latest mass shooting at an event in America. At least one person was killed and another 11 wounded during a shooting at a festival in Brooklyn on Saturday night, officials said.

The six-year-old boy’s grandmother, Maribel Romero, told news outlets she wanted “justice for my grandson” in the wake of the mass shooting.

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The little boy would be remembered by family and friends as “always kind”, “happy” and “playful”, Ms Romero told KGO-TV.

“I just hope there is justice and they catch the last person or the other person and that there’s justice,” she said, adding: “I want justice for my grandson.”

Donald Trump addressed the shooting at a bill-signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden on Monday morning, saying: “We will continue to work together as communities and as citizens to stop evil.”

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