A couple wounded in the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting Sunday confronted the gunman before he shot them at close range, NBC Bay Area has learned from family members.
The husband and wife were running a booth at the festival, according to the wife's sister Christine Sedillo.
Sedillo said her sister spotted the gunman, identified as 19-year-old Santino William Legan, as he came through a fence on the edge of the festival grounds at Christmas Hill Park. She then confronted Legan, and he shot her at close range.
"The first thing she did was run and confront him," Sedillo said. "She got within 10 feet of him. She told him, 'You are not going to do this here.' He then shot her."
Sedillo said her brother-in-law came running, and the gunman shot him too. He also was in critical condition in Valley Med's intensive care unit Monday night.
What happened next seemed incredible to Sedillo.
She said Legan walked up to the couple lying on the ground, stood above them and asked them "Are you OK?" in a calm voice.
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The couple played dead, Sedillo said, fearing he would try to finish them off. Then the suspected shooter’s gun jammed.
"He then dropped the gun magazine right next to her head, loaded another, then opened fire towards her booth and everywhere," Sedillo said.
The granddaughter of one of the workers likely saved the life of the couple’s 3-year-old son.
"Thank god for Madison," Sedillo said. "That 10-year-old little girl saw him running towards his parents on the ground, snatched him up, dragged him under the table and laid on top of him to shield him. That’s the bravest thing I’ve ever heard."
With the couple down, a friend tried desperately to stop their bleeding until paramedics arrived.
"I pulled my shirt off, tied it as a tourniquet around his upper thigh," family friend Denim Brandel said. "I started packing that wound with paper towels somebody was handing me at the time and put pressure on it."
The couple have undergone multiple surgeries and face many more, as well as a long recovery. Sedillo said her sister remained in critical condition Monday night.
Friends and family have set up a GoFundMe account to help with medical bills. The campaign had raised nearly $37,000 of a $100,000 goal as of late Monday night.
