Gilroy garlic fest victims sue organizers

Emergency vehicles line the road leading to Christmas Hill Park, where the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting broke out on 28 July in the city located in Northern California's Santa Clara County. (Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO—Five people who were wounded during a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in late July have filed suit against the iconic event’s organizers, alleging “negligent security measures” that gave the shooter a pathway to enter the festival grounds and unleash a torrent of bullets into a terrified crowd.

The San Francisco-based Scarlett Law Group filed the lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Tuesday on behalf of Wendy Towner, her husband Francisco Aguilera, Brynn Ota-Matthews, Justin Bates and Nick McFarland, who were all wounded in the shooting that ultimately killed three people and injured 14 others.

“I was under the impression that all things were safe and under control” at the festival, Towner said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit. “It’s been hard to think that we weren’t safe out there.”

Towner and Aguilera spent five weeks in the hospital after they were shot, and each racked up over $2 million worth of medical expenses for dozens of surgeries. She said they still don’t know how much of those bills their health insurance will cover.

“There is a need for compensation in this case,” attorney Randall Scarlett said. “But if you talk with any of the clients you see their overriding concern is that this not be allowed to happen again.”

“The lawsuit filed today stemming from a horrific act of domestic terrorism, is not unexpected, and we will respond through the appropriate legal channels. As a non-profit organization, we must remain focused on our mission: fundraising for the entire community of Gilroy and the more than 150 charities that rely on us,” the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association wrote.

In the wake of the 28 July shooting, authorities said the suspect, Santino Legan, 19, of Gilroy, cut through a perimeter fence to gain access to the festival at Christmas Hill Park.

Legan fired 39 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle, fatally wounding San Jose residents 6-year-old Stephen Romero and 13-year-old Keyla Salazar and 25-year-old New York resident Trevor Irby, authorities said. Legan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound as Gilroy officers rushed to confront him.

The FBI has since opened a domestic terrorism case and is continuing to investigate the shooting. Although authorities discovered a “target list” containing religious institutions, courthouses and other sites, they say they have not determined Legan’s motive.

The lawsuit revolves around what the plaintiffs’ attorneys say were “inadequate and outdated security policies” and measures that failed to account for the modern-day threats posed to large festivals and events that draw tens of thousands of people.

“Defendants had reason to know the history of the threat of an active shooter situation at outdoor venues,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit’s allegations of negligence center on an “inadequate, flimsy, low-height unsupported chain link fence that was simple to breach, located inappropriately where the shooter’s presence and entrance would be concealed by a wooded area” that was made “even worse by allowing cars, box trucks and and/or other obstructions to be placed” near the site where Legan allegedly entered.

“They left an entire area open for anyone to come into that festival,” Scarlett said. “That’s an open door that is about the length of a football field.”

Festival organizers “failed to act to reasonably secure against the safety threats created by the Uvas Creek Park Reserve’s location,” including hiring adequate security staff, training employees, and working more closely with local and federal law enforcement, according to the lawsuit.

Towner was one of the first people to see and confront Legan, and is credited with diverting the shooter’s attention from nearby children by shouting at him. She and Aguilera were both shot in the leg.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, including money to cover the survivors’ medical bills and their loss of earnings in the future from the injuries they suffered.

Towner and Aguilera, who live in Morgan Hill, were vendors at the Garlic Festival. They had been selling garlic- and habanero-flavored honey from their business, the Honey Ladies, which humanely rescues bee hives and swarms.

The business now faces an uncertain future, Towner said, because neither she nor Aguilera can climb a ladder or stand for long periods of time. Towner’s lower left leg remains heavily wrapped around the place where a bullet tore through her shin and calf, making it impossible for her to put on a beekeeper’s suit. Aguilera limped and grimaced as he stood next to Towner at a Tuesday’s press conference.

“We’re looking at other ways to be able to run the business, but everything is in the air right now,” Towner said. (Mercury News)