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Police confirm another victim grazed by bullet in Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting

Mourners leave items at a roadside memorial in Gilroy, Calif.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times )
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Authorities have officially confirmed that another person suffered a gunshot wound — narrowly escaping a more serious injury — during a deadly shooting in Gilroy, Calif., last month.

Officials said a 58-year-old man, who was not named, sustained a graze wound to his head that required stitches. The man’s injuries bring the total number of people wounded during the shooting to 17. Stephen Romero, 6, Keyla Salazar, 13, and Trevor Irby, 25, were killed.

Santino William Legan, 19, opened fire at the popular Gilroy Garlic Festival on the evening of July 28. He fired 39 rounds as attendees fled from the park where the annual festival was being held, authorities said.

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Police initially had said the rampage was cut short when three Gilroy officers engaged a rifle-wielding Legan with handguns and killed him in less than a minute. Officers fired 18 rounds and hit Legan multiple times, officials said.

The county medical examiner later concluded Legan had killed himself, contradicting that earlier police account.

Gilroy Police Capt. Joseph Deras said Legan was standing to the side of the 58-year-old injured man and “had he coughed or sneezed or just moved at all” sideways or backward, “that round would have just struck him square in the head.”

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Deras said police were aware of the man’s injuries and had been trying to reach him when he contacted police earlier this week. The captain said authorities are still processing evidence and going through video footage — including from police body cameras — and witness statements.

The FBI launched a domestic terrorism investigation into the shooting after officials discovered Legan had a list of other potential targets, including religious organizations, courthouses, federal buildings and political institutions. Investigators have not determined a motive for the attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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