LOS ANGLES – A shooter opened fire at a major food festival in California on Sunday, police said, with US media reporting at least three people killed and multiple others wounded.
Police in Gilroy said it was “still an active crime scene” at the site of the city’s garlic festival, 30 miles (48 kilometres) southeast of San Jose, one of the largest food festivals in the country.
Footage on NBC showed people running as shots rang out. A witness named Julissa Contreras told NBC a white man in his 30s armed with a rifle opened fire indiscriminately.
“I could see him shooting in just every direction. He wasn’t aiming at anyone specifically. It was just left to right, right to left,” Contreras said, according to NBC.
“He definitely was prepared for what he was doing,” she said.
City councilman Dion Bracco said at least three people had died according to various US media outlets including the New York Times.
One suspect was in custody, he said, according to the newspaper.
“They don’t know if there were more, so they have to treat it as an active situation,” he said.
Police did not immediately confirm the casualty numbers or any arrest.
“Law Enforcement is at the scene of shootings in Gilroy, California. Reports are that shooter has not yet been apprehended,” US President Donald Trump earlier tweeted.
The San Francisco division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on Twitter that it was “responding to the scene of a reported shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California.”
Suspected gunman killed
A suspected gunman in a deadly shooting at a food festival in California was shot and killed by officers, police said.
The shooting which took place at the site of a major garlic festival in Gilroy, 30 miles (48 kilometres) southeast of San Jose, left four people dead including the gunman, Gilroy police chief Scot Smithee said.
“Officers were in that area and engaged the suspect in less than a minute. The suspect was shot and killed,” said Smithee.
A search for a possible second suspect was ongoing, he added.
