vista for american film. this is cnn breaking news. >> i'm natalie allen at cnn center in atlanta. we are following breaking news here. a shooting has occurred in california at a food festival near san jose. this is video new into cnn from a witness. >> the sound of gunshots there and people running as this festival was about to end. this is when it happened. it happened in gilroy, california at the annual and very popular gilroy garlic
festival marketed as one of the country's largest food festivals. according to local news reports quoting witnesses, there are people hurt, and a law enforcement official tells us that the atf is responding. this tweeted a short time ago from the police department. it says the hearts of gilroy pd and entire community go out to the victims of today's shooting at the garlic festival. the scene is still active. we are closely following the developments from the breaking news. cnn is monitoring the story from our l.a. bureau. also with us, cnn crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz. thank you both. i know you're working sources on this story. paul, first to you. what do we know about what happened? do we have information about whether this shooter has been apprehended? >> no information of that nature yet, natalie.
this is a still developing story. but we do know that witnesses have told cnn that they heard multiple shots fired here at the garlic festival. some of you may be asking where is gilroy, california? it's about 80 miles south of san francisco. as you illuded to earlier, this is an extremely popular event. garlic is big business in the gilroy area so this is well-attended. we've seen numerous reports that suggest many victims have been taken to local hospitals and people have reported that they have seen people on the ground at this festival. but right now the information is just trickling in, and as you showed earlier, the gilroy police department saying active shooter. so, it is not known whether or not, natalie, to your question, that shooter has been app remend hended. >> i've just gotten news from our producer here that the shooter has not been apprehended. so, let's talk about what that
situation could be. there were reports that security has been stepped up this year because of the problem with mass shootings at various festivals in the united states. but somehow, this person has gotten into this festival and caused utter mayhem. any word on how many people could have been affected? >> that's an area that we're very careful not to give you great detail on. we've seen some wild swings in the reports. and because it's just trickling in, natalie, we're not sure. all we know that this is indeed a mass shooting, certainly it's not an isolated incident where we're hearing of one or two. but until we can get authorities to get on record with us with how many people they believe have been shot, we're just not going to venture a guess right now. but we do know that there are reports of multiple victims being taken to local hospitals. and we have seen the reports and the tweets about multiple people being seen on the ground at this very crowded garlic festival.
>> as you speak we're getting first video right here from gilroy, aerial video. you can see fire trucks and police cars that have responded. let's go to shimon for us in new york city, our crime and justice reporter. shimon, maybe you can shed light on when something like this breaks out -- gilroy is not that near large cities. so, talk with us about what the response would be like and where they would pull resources in from. >> so, certainly the neighboring counties is something you would see law enforcement/police officers from nearby. obviously you also have the california highway patrol. you can see some of their vehicles there in the video, their suvs. they're on scene. they can respond pretty quickly with additional resources. the atf, as we heard, they were responding, so they would bring in resources as well as the fbi from probably san jose.
they would respond as well and assist with whatever resources they could. a lot of times what you're seeing -- especially i think what we can tell from what we're seeing right now and hearing right now is that i don't think police have a great handle on the situation. again, there were reports of possible two shooters. you hear that a lot in active shooter situations. sometimes witnesses are mistaken. but police are still searching, going through the festival. they're also looking for victims. and sometimes what happens in these situations, ems, the medical technicians that arrive and going to these scenes, they need to go in with police. they need to go in with tactical gear especially when it's believed that the suspect, a shooter, is still loose. they would have to go in and try and find victims. that can delay sometimes getting to victims. that's why we're not hearing probably a good number yet on some of the injured. also in a situation like this you have a lot of people running. so, they could trip over each
other. people sometimes get trampled in these situations. and that is how they get injured, not necessarily shot. so, that's what we see going on here. obviously it's a massive, massive police response. there could have been thousands of people at this festival. according to their website, the gilroy garlic festival, it's a three-day festival, a lot of food. there's entertainment. people do pay to go to this. it's an all-day event. it ends around 6:00 west coast time. so, this shooting, it seems when we first started getting word of this shooting that it came at the end of the festival, 9:00 eastern time. around that time, sometime after that, is when we started getting word that this shooting had occurred. this seems to have occurred at the end of it. we're just about two hours into this incident. it's not uncommon for police -- given the -- when you look at the video there from the
helicopter, you can tell it's a pretty big area where this happened. lots of tents. so, probably there had to have been a lot of people there. so, from what i can tell and based on some of the stuff that i've heard that the ems workers, the police, they were still going through the scene trying to find victims, making sure that they could clear it. and they're still as far as we know looking for at least one shooter. >> yes. that's -- that is the information we have here. thank you so much. stand by because now we have an eyewitness on the line with us. she's just been reunited with her family i'm told. thank you so much for talking with us. what can you tell us about what you experienced when you first realized that someone was shooting? >> when i realized someone was shooting, i started running and we hit the ground. and i literally laid down on the ground and he was still shooting. after he stopped shooting, that's when i got up and i
started to run to a truck. as i started to run, he started back shooting. as he was shooting, he shot the lady that was running right next to me. we kind of hid behind an enterprise truck. and behind that enterprise truck was a lady, her daughter, and the sheriff and one of my family members. the lady was like i'm okay. the sheriff was like no you're not. you're hit. the guy was still shooting. the sheriff trusted me and one of my family members to jump over the fence and run, and that's what we did. we had to leap over the fence and run out. it's one of the scariest feelings. i'm not sure. i think this is all like a nightmare because i don't believe this is reality right now. >> i'm sure it's very hard to comprehend with something like this happens that it's real. did you see the shooter? >> no. but my family member did. i didn't because my head was down and they were on top of me. but it was a white male. he came out at the end. where we were located, we were located about 15 feet from the shooter. there was no other way for us to
run but out and that is the way the bullets were coming, our direction. >> how many bullets? how rapidly was this shooting? >> he had an assault rifle. that was a lot of bullets that was coming. they was coming and the only reason we're hearing the cease fire is because his rifle jammed. if not, we probably wouldn't be sitting here right now. so, it's nobody but god right now that i'm able to even talk to you guys because we was just that close to that shooter. >> how close were you? >> we were about 15 feet away from that shooter. >> oh, my goodness. >> he came right in the area where we were eating at. >> oh, my goodness, 15 feet. i'm sorry, what was he wearing? >> he was wearing army fatigues. he was army fatigues with an assault rifle. >> did he just -- where did you -- where would he have walked out from? can you describe the area? >> he came from one of the venues where we're at.
there's an eating area. there's nothing but food areas. it's like a horse shoe. where he was located, he came out from one of the victims and that's when he started shooting. >> could you tell how many people he was able to shoot? any idea as people laid there? >> it was like 60 people that got shot. so far we have confirmed that one person is dead. right now, emt, ambulance, and helicopter waiting to take people away. that's where i'm located, away from the gilroy high school. >> did you see a police response? i know this happened so quickly, but were there police on the scene? >> yeah. i was hiding with a police officer. the lady that was shot was me and the sheriff. she was -- the officer right there. she was hiding with us. >> who was with you that was able to get away with you? >> it was me and one of my family members. that's the one she instructed us
to go over the fence and she stayed with the lady that was shot and her little daughter. they stayed under the enterprise truck. >> what were you hearing around you other than shots? were people screaming? were they yelling to help? >> they were screaming. they were all looking alike. she had an accident. it was frightening. it was blood everywhere. i never seen nothing like that in my life. i read about this, but i never thought that i would be in this. >> totally understand. we can hear as you're talking, we're rolling video. you can hear the gunshots popping in the distance there. and this was the end of the festival. the -- were there -- was there music still going on? was everything wrapping up? >> there was music still going. everybody was wrapping it up. it was around 530 t:30. we were getting our souvenirs. i had been there since 1:00. i thought it was part of the
venue, pop, pop, pop. but that wasn't part of the venue. that was real life action. >> this is a very popular festival for this region. a lot of families go to this. is this something that you frequent often? >> no, this was my first time going with my family. >> oh, my goodness. >> and we will not come back. i do not patronize events like this. i don't even have shoes right now. i'm thankful to be alive, but i ran out of my shoes. >> how close do you think you got to being shot by this shooter? >> between me and that lady, it was her or me. and god did not put my name on the list this morning to get shot. thank you, jesus. that's how close it was. >> i know this is a very popular festival. and all the proceeds go to help supporting this community. it's been going on since the '70s. how many people would you say were there that you could see? dozens, hundreds? >> it was hundreds. it was families. it was kids.
it was all walks of life. it was people just enjoying the day. >> have you been told where to go or have you been advised of where people are congregating or being told to go for safety? >> yeah, they're being told to go to the high school and you can reunite. some family members are just being let go and they can walk out. at least my family member i just reunited with about 20 minutes ago. so, i have him with us. and we're going home now. we're just going to go digest this. or at least try. >> well, you're so very fortunate. i know you know that. you know, so many people, innocent people get caught up in these mass shootings that we see all too often in this country. it's like you're in a state of shock. you don't realize what's happening, whether it's fireworks, where it's a shooting, what was going through
your mind immediately. did you know this is a shooting? >> no, i did not. i thought it was fireworks. i literally thought it was pop, pop, pop. when that second round came, it became real to me. when i laid down on that ground, i said i cannot move. it's a possibility i was going to lose my life. that was the voice that came to my head. when he stopped, that's when i ran for everything i knew. that was it. it was now or never. >> yes. it worked. how far did you have to run to take cover? >> just like about -- i would say about 10, 20 feet. it was that truck. that's the only place i seen that was cover was that truck. and that's where i ran for. >> how long did you hide out there? >> i hid out under that truck until that sheriff told me to go over that gate and get out of here. >> and how long was that before he got there? >> at least three more, four more minutes because he was still shooting. >> who was with you? you said it was a family member?
was it a child? was it an adult? >> it was an adult. >> how are they doing? >> they're here. they're traumatized. we're here. we're all in the car safe. we're going to try to just roll out and go home and digest this and say a prayer for all the people that was involved and may not have made it. my heart is -- it really hurts for them because nobody should go to an event like such and lose their life. nobody deserves that at all. >> right. do you feel okay to drive? how far do you live? >> i live in sacramento, so my drive is about two hours from here. so, yeah. i have a long drive. so, i'm going to head home. >> well, i know that you're in a state of shock and this is just terrifying. thank you so much for joining us and you're able to tell us our story because we want to speak
with people that just witnessed this. and we're so thankful that you and your family member are okay. thank you. we wish you all the best. >> thank you. >> thank you. let's talk about what we just heard with cnn national security analyst juliet keiyam joining us and charles ramsey. first to you juliet. were you listening to that witness, and do you have some thoughts? >> couple things. first of all, of course this is a single eyewitness. and while our hearts go out to her, we also have to remember that her viewpoint is just one. what she's seeing is obviously from her perspective. we don't know if there's one or two shooters. we don't know the exact weapon. there's going to be multiple eyewitness reports and that's how the police are going to put a picture together of how many people they're looking for. this is an active case as far as we can tell right now. i think the biggest hint about
that is because the police department have not come out formally. it's been a little while. they normally come out relatively quickly. we are in pursuit, so to speak, or someone is. and we'll just have to wait because obviously the most important thing is the saving of lives. and quickly, the focus on family unification. unfortunately you and i and cnn have done enough of these at this stage that the key -- the sort of primary and priority issue right now is family unification. i was looking on the twitter feed for the gilroy police department. they do have a phone number, 408-846-8503. the most important thing is to get families together. that's how you have an accounting of who was there. that's how you get people to remain calm and be calm. once a mother knows her child is okay, then things tend to get better after that. with focus on family unification which is key and important and the most important thing today obviously. >> right. and let's talk about the chaos.
when people start hearing gunshots, they're not even sure it's gunshots. some people have never even heard gunshots, whether it's fireworks. where to go, where to run, and how to figure out where it's coming from. >> so, on this -- i was looking at pictures of the -- previous pictures of the festival. so, this looks like a typical festival. there's a couple entry points and then everything is sort of open and there's booths and selling. i know this is a popular festival amongst restaurant owners and food purchasers. so, you're really not going to have a lot -- you're not going to have a single or double evacuation point. it's probably going to be everyone just sort of running for cover. i think what that also suggests is that security would be very, very difficult once you're inside the perimeter and it's not at all clear how much security was at getting into the perimeter. i've seen differing reports. i don't want to say conclusively.
but one could suspect it's not like entering an nfl football stadium. it's probably quite lax. we don't know if there's forced entry. this is a worst case scenario where you have an enclosed area that someone has gotten into and probably no organization around how people get out of that area. that's why police are focused on family unification because you have to suspect people got separated from the people they were there with when they entered. >> right. it's not like a music festival where everyone is sitting together. there's music. there's food. it's a family event. juliet, thank you. we're going to talk now with charles ramsey. he's the former police commissioner for philadelphia. charles, what are the first steps police will be taking in this investigation and this search? >> well, there's a couple things they're doing. one, they've got to identify and locate any wounded to try to get them out of there. >> charles, i've got to interrupt you just for a moment.
we've got another witness joining us now. let's listen. >> he grabbed me and says get on the ground now. i thought he was joking. and everybody was leaving. >> so, there was a lot of confusion, i would imagine, and very chaotic scene with a number of children around. >> people looking for their kids too. and as soon as the gunfire started, everybody scattered and people were yelling for their kids. and yeah, we just heard raaa. >> you heard rapid fire? >> it's like a semiautomatic going off really close too and people screaming and hiding and ducking. >> so, now your vehicle, all of -- with a lot of vendors out here, you're all in the same boat. everything is still at the festival. it's an active scene still. >> we don't really sort of know what's going on. like, initially they got one
shooter. and then they're looking for two others. we got moved over to the school. and we're just waiting to hear word of when we can get in. they said we can't get our stuff for 24 hours. we're trying to figure out do we drive. do we go to a hotel. where are they going to move us? but really we can't leave without our stuff. i'm from berkeley. i'm not from down here. i have no way home. and we're just waiting. >> well, thank you for sharing that firsthand account with us. and we are also trying to sort out a lot of the information still as it pertains to the shooter or shooters. but again -- >> another witness talking about what they witnessed. and we're just talkin about this with juliet and we'll go back to charles ramsey as well that the important thing here is to reunite families that might have been scattered. so, charles, let's go back to you. we were talking about what police are dealing with. the word is this shooter, assuming it's one, has not been apprehended. >> well, they're doing their best to lock down that area, to
establish a perimeter. but the reality is when these things occur, there's a great deal of chaos. you don't know if the shooter might have taken advantage of that and fled the scene at the same time. do you have one person? do you have more than one person? is the description that we heard from the previous witness actually an accurate description of the shooter? we don't know any of that at this point in time. and anybody who happened to be at that scene that might have cell phone video or any kind of video at all that may have captured what took place need to get in touch with police right away. right now i would imagine they're going through a process that's really quite difficult to really get your handle on everything that's going on so that you can provide accurate information to the public. but just like juliet said, right now a big part of that is going to be reuniting families. people were spread out all over, probably various vendors. you start hearing gunshots. people start running.
reports of people being injured. that may or may not be the result of the shooting. in situations like that, people trample other people quite frankly trying to find a way out. so, they've got a lot to sort through. right now they've got to lock it down. they've got to search that scene to make sure that there's no more active threats right there. >> right. >> and then get to the business of identifying this person. >> right. and it's 8:30 p.m. there in california, charles. so, as darkness sets in, how much more difficult will this be? >> well, it gets to be a lot more difficult but they'll bring in portable lighting and so forth. they're going to do everything they can to lock that scene down, but it's an outdoor scene so that's not easy. you've got to have the resources and the manpower to do it. darkness does complicate things, there's no question about that. they'll do the best they can in terms of using canines and everything else at their disposal, helicopters. they'll use whatever they have to use in order to thoroughly search that area.
>> all right. charles, thank you. juliet, thank you. we are staying on top with this breaking news coverage getting more information trickling in. we'll take a short break. we'll be right back. [happy birthday music] ♪ ♪ don't get mad, put those years to work with e*trade. at t-mobile, for $40/line for four lines, it's all included for the whole family, starting with unlimited data.
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and with over 80 years of healthcare expertise, imagine what we can do for you. this is the benefit of blue. welcome back. i'm natalie allen at cnn center. we continue to closely monitor a developing situation, reports of a shooting in the city of gilroy, california at the city's garlic music festival of all places. gilroy is about 30 miles from san jose. police say the situation is still active and the san francisco branch of the atf is responding to this situation. we want to show you some video from the ground that we received from a witness. >> what's going on? what's going on? is that fire -- what [ bleep ] is going on? oh [ bleep ]. oh, they shooting.
who shoot at a garlic festival? >> we also received this video where you can hear gunshots. >> what's going on? [ sound of gunfire ] >> witnesses that hit the ground during this describe complete chaos as you can imagine. let's take a listen. >> these people were here now and they were hungry, so i went to get the cone for them. i was at the cone booth, two shots rang out first. at the same time the music started for the convert so i thought it was an opening act for the concert. but after few seconds there were so many shots and i saw people
falling down, kids falling down. i had to jump over three of the kids. one bullet passed me very closely and hit our friend's booth and her chair. she's injured there. >> i know you said you injured your knee in the chaos of all of this. >> right, running over and jumping over people to get to my booth to make sure everybody was safe. i hurt my knee also. >> you can tell that people just had no idea what was happening. this is a three-day festival, a very popular festival, and this was the very end of the festival when this happened. we're learning from stanford medicine that two patients are being treated following this shooting. we want to go now to tomorrform secret service agent right now. jonathan is a cnn law enforcement analyst and he is in middletown, new jersey. thank you, jonathan. we've got very little information to go on. what we do know is from the best
we can tell at least one shooter at the end of this festival somehow got in amongst the crowd and then started firing. what would be the police response? what would they be doing right now to try to find this person that we understand has not been apprehended? >> this is the challenge for law enforcement right now. you have a very dynamic and active crime scene where you do not have, you know, proper identification of who the suspect is. so, as said earlier -- i believe ramsey said earlier, the suspect could be hiding within the crowd itself. so, law enforcement has to take a very systematic approach as to how they're going to, you know, basically build out from the center of the attack going outwards if this concentric circles to understand where this individual is, are they on the run, are they hiding someplace. so, all law enforcement resources whether it's from the federal government, local, and
state are going to converge on to this location to put this threat down and ensure the public safety. from there, they will take pause and start looking at this is an active crime scene. they'll have to understand what the motive of the attack was, is there secondary attacks, and go on from there. >> if this person, jonathan, was able to slip away, for some reason if a security person or police that was at this festival wasn't able to track this person, how much harder is that now considering this is surrounded but a rural area and a woodland? >> this is just -- then it transfers into a police investigation and understanding and bringing forth all of the clues together to make the proper identification. one of the advantages today in the age of social media and everyone streaming video co-joined with law enforcement's use of social media and video surveillance of these large public events, i think that
identification of the individual should be made quickly if the police don't know it already. >> we're seeing video of a creek and some witnesses were saying there is a creek behind this festival and wondered if that's how this person moved in because apparently according to one witness i just talked with, they were dressed in fatigues. i think we have another witness now. >> shawn, tell our viewers out there what it was like for you. you told me it was around 5:30 this afternoon, this evening when everything erupted. >> yeah. you can see -- you could hear bullets. and the bullets were hitting the ground. you can see them go up. that's when i called out it's a real gun. so, the crew and the band ran and hid underneath the stage. so, we were hiding underneath the stage. we could hear more gunfire happening. eventually some gunfire happened and bullets were hitting the stage that we were hiding
underneath. and then eventually it stopped. there were people calling out looking for people. eventually we came out and i could see there was someone down. and they were performing cpr on them. and later i heard it was the gunman. >> how quickly was all this happening? we got a few things we've got to dissect in that situation there. how quickly was all this going on? >> i think the whole thing took maybe 15 minutes. it was very fast. >> very fast. and you said you saw bullets that were dropping from a gun? from a person? >> yeah. it sounded like fire crackers going off. but then there was dirt puffs going up in unison. so, that's a gun to me. >> describe to me exactly where you were and where you were looking out in order to see all this happening? >> i was very far stage right and looking out on -- looking over the audience. as a stage hand, i had nothing to do other than wait for the band to finish. so, we were just about ready to start cleaning up and clearing out for the day. >> they're in the middle of
their song and you're looking out into the audience and that's when you started seeing -- >> i heard it first, and then i saw the bullets, yep. >> okay. in terms of -- i know you joined the band underneath the stage, is that correct? >> absolutely. >> okay. did you see victims? what did you see other than just, you know, dirt puffs hitting the ground. >> like i said, i came out later on and was looking around. i was worried about fellow crew members and i saw they were moving hay bales. the police were moving hay bales in front of some things and drew my attention there. i could see somebody performing cpr. later on i heard it was a gunman, it was the gunman. that's in the same direction the bullets were coming from. >> did you see a gun? >> you never saw a gun. >> okay. were you -- have you been told by anybody that there may have been more than one shooter. >> i heard there was more than one shooter. i also saw people covered in blood. so, when i saw they had blood splattered all over them and a hand print on them.
so, they were standing next to somebody who got shot. >> and were there emergency crews helping these people? what was going on? >> at that time there were people just coming to the area. there was a police presence, thank goodness, so it didn't last very long. >> what was it like for you when you were under the stage? >> it was very scary. i was texting my family and telling them i love them because i had no idea what was going to happen. >> you weren't sure if you were going to make it out alive. >> correct. >> when all of that is going on, what were other people under the stage doing? were you thinking we have to find a way to get out of here or just ud hadal down? >> everyone was just being quiet. we did not want to draw any attention to us. >> once you were able to get out from underneath what was going on then? were there police officers there? >> there were police officers there. they were clearing out the area. the area we had, there was a tarp hiding underneath the stage. so, the police came to clear out that area.
they told us to get our hands up and come out one at a time to make sure everything was clear and safe. >> what happened from there? >> we were escorted to a parking lot and escorted to another meeting spot and told we had to leave the park. now we're at one of the evacuation spots. >> during that time when you're coming over here, were you being informed of anything? were emergency responders telling you what happened? there were victims? >> they were telling us to stay calm and not to speculate and not to use our cell phones too much because we wanted to keep the air waves clear for police communication. >> and in terms of not being -- being told that you can't use your cell phone, you're at the same time thinking i need to let my loved ones know what's going on. >> absolutely. >> what was that like for you? >> it was stressful because we had to -- i was texting people. i wasn't trying to have a prolonged phone call, conversation. so, it was pretty harrowing. but i had to stay calm because panic doesn't really help anybody. we had to start cleaning up the -- i was there working.
so -- >> shawn, we're glad you're okay. we thank you for sharing the time here. in terms of coming here, were you here looking for anybody? did everybody get out that you came with? >> yes. >> are you waiting for anybody here? >> everyone's here now and we're talking about trying to find what's the next step. all my -- everyone's car is still there and it's going to be closed for the next 24 hours. so, i'm not going to have access to my vehicle for a while. so, we're all trying to figure out how to get home. >> have you been told whether or not there's somebody out there and that's what's preventing you from getting in? >> i believe so. i wasn't told that -- i wasn't necessarily told. i overheard people talking about another shooter, but i don't know anything else from that point. >> again, in terms of the people that were there with you, have you been talking to anybody that might still be in there? because from what we've been -- >> no. no one i know is left. everyone -- everyone's out now. so, i don't know anyone that's left in the festival.
>> and just going back to the initial moment. the band is going through their last song of the night. i believe it was an encore that was happening. >> mm-hm. >> and then something just erupts. >> yeah. yeah. something erupts. yeah, it sounded like fireworks and it drew my -- it was loud fireworks that drew my attention. then the puffs of dirt in conjunction with the loud fireworks told me that that's a weapon and we don't need to be there. it was an active shooter situation. >> can you tell me how many shots you may have heard? >> oh, five or six. and it happened relatively fast. and i saw only a handful of puffs of dirt for me to be able to figure out that it was a weapon. we cleared out from that point. so, apparently the guy had a hand gun. one of the people as we were being evacuated said the guy had a hand gun. >> so, you never saw the gun, but some people it may have been a hand gun. >> correct. >> you aren't sure how many shooters are out there.
>> correct. >> but you are certain from what you've gathered looking out there that it was definitely somebody that was shooting and that he was hitting people. >> yes. >> was there anything that might have seemed like an argument or fight or something that might have provoked this? >> no, came out of nowhere. i was on stage with the band playing, so i wouldn't have heard anything beyond the stage anyway. it would have taken something very loud to go over the pa system. >> well, shawn, thank you so much for again sharing this with us. we're glad to see that you are okay and that your friends are doing okay. and we're just sorry that you had to go through something like this. we're just going to keep getting as much information and we appreciate the people that are here at the reunification center taking the time to really share what happened here today. >> thank you. >> thank you for that. >> all right. another witness describing what he saw, what he heard, what he went through. we have on the phone with us now the mayor of san jose,
california, sam lacardo is with us. we understand san jose is about 30 minutes north of gilroy. what have you learned about this shooting and what the situation is right now in searching for who or if there were more people responsible? >> well, it is still an active scene. so, i can't comment on what they've learned so far. but i can tell you we've deployed more than a dozen police units down there. we've got a lot of fire units, providing paramedic service. and we're going to continue to send people down as gilroy needs help. we know that they're going to need help with patrol and all the other basic necessities while the scene continues to be active. >> what can you tell us about this festival? where is gilroy in relation to california? how popular is this festival?
how many people might have been there? how many people live in gilroy? >> so, gilroy's a city of a little more than 50,000 people, about 20 miles to our south. and we're a city of 1.1 million, so obviously we're the nearest big city. hundreds of thousands of people attend the gilroy garlic festival every year. it's a big attraction. it celebrates the agricultural heritage of the town and it raises money for local nonprofits. it's an incredibly wonderful family friendly event. and this is the last place anyone would want to imagine such a horrible thing happening. >> we have a tweet there on our screen right there from the gilroy police confirming that this is still an active crime scene meaning that this shooter or the shooters, we just don't know how many, has not been apprehended. and also announcing that they will have an update soon. this should be the first from the police. so, let's read it right here.
as a reminder, please do not come to christmas hill park. that is where the festival took place. this is still an active crime scene. we'll be sharing information with the media soon, and thank you for your patience during this rapidly evolving situation. back to you mayor. how important was the response that gilroy being a town of 50,000 got support from san jose and other areas? >> well, it's pretty common for all the cities and towns to rely on mutual aide when something this awful happens. and we're always happy to provide it. talked to the police chief just an hour ago and he said that, you know, he couldn't hold people back from running down there to try to help. so, obviously everyone wants to do what they can to help neighbors in need. >> all right. mayor, we thank you so much. sam lacardo out of san jose. thank you for joining us. we want to go to dan simon. he is on the ground for us in
gilroy, california. dan, what are you learning and what is the scene there where you are? >> hi, natalie. we are at the college, this is the reunification site for people to meet up. there are a little more than a hundred people here. as i was walking around, i encountered a gentleman who was performing with the band when the shots rang out. i'm going to pass the phone to him in awe moment. but he is the lead singer for the band. heard all of the gunshots and immediately left the stage. his name is christian swain. i'm going to hand the phone to him right now. he'll be able to talk to you. christian, you're on with natalie. >> hello. >> yes, hi christian. tell us what you experienced as this shooting broke out. >> well, we were the last band, the last day the stage. 5:30. had just come because that was the end of our set. the crowd asked for us to play
one more song which we launched into. and about halfway into it, we heard about three pops to the left-hand side of the stage. and, you know, it's a little confusing. we didn't know what that was. and then all of a sudden there was a whole volley of shots that all of a sudden became very obvious. so, we ran off the stage. we crawled underneath it. and we laid down, hid, kept quiet until the police arrived. they seemed to have secured the area fairly quickly, probably within five or six minutes. they came and found us. somebody said there's people under the stage and we let them know that's the band. and they escorted us out. and they escorted us away. our guitar player did see the shooter. he said it was a guy with what
appears to be an assault rifle. he's not a weapons expert. he doesn't know much about it. he said that several times to the police that interviewed him so far. but he said he was wearing a green shirt, had a gray bandana around his neck, and a ball cap. and that's all he remembered. we saw people with blood on shirts. i don't think any of us saw actual victims. we were escorted away very quickly. it's a large scale event. and you know, we probably walked half a mile to one point we thought we would be escorted back to get our equipment. and then they told us no. they're going to secure this down, lock this down for 24 hours. and then they moved us out to a high school, put us on some buses, and then took us over to the college.
>> christian, we're very glad that you and your band mates are okay. as you are speaking, i just learned one person is confirmed dead so far. and multiple people have been injured. so, you were quite fortunate. when you said you heard the first pops and then the volley, any idea how close the shooter was to you? >> oh, he was like 20 feet away from us. we could smell the gun powder. >> my goodness. what were you thinking? what were you feeling as you went and hid under the stage? >> you know, all i can say for me is that it was just everybody shut up, keep quiet, stay down. we knew the event was well-covered with security. and we seen them as we came in to set up and play. so, you know, at least in my
head i knew they would be there. and sure enough, that seems to be what happened. >> your band member that saw the shooter and believed it was an assault rifle, did he -- was he able to figure out the proximate age of this person or any description? >> he seems 30 to 40 years old. >> caucasian? >> caucasian, right? yeah. definitely. >> and again, where are you right now? >> we're at the reunification scene at javelin college. >> can you describe the scene there? are there a lot of people there that are banning together? >> it seems like people are showing up to pick people up. nobody is allowed into the site until tomorrow afternoon about 5:00. >> and about the time the shooting happened, how many people would you say were in the crowd or around you? it happened --
>> oh, there were thousands. there were thousands. there were several hundred in front of us watching us play. there was a set of vendors selling food just to the left of us. and from what jack tells me, the shooter was discriminately firing, i guess mostly in that direction. >> my goodness. thousands of people. christian, thank you so much. if you could hand the phone back to our reporter, we'll continue our reporting. thank you so much. we're so glad you're okay and your band. >> thank you. thank you very much. yeah, we're very lucky. >> hey, paul, can you hear me? >> hello. >> paul? let's see if we can -- >> so, i believe if dan isn't going to hang up, i'll pick it up from here. we understand there's been a
tremendous response from various fire departments and ambulance companies in the area. and cal fire alone, they don't just cover fires. they have sent three air ambulances at least and ten medic units to the area. and you, of course, early letter natalie reported that they had sent some of the shooting victims to stanford medical center. that would be to the north. also governor gavin newsom is now weighing in. this is on his twitter account. he says this is nothing short of w horrific. tonight california stands with the gilroy community. my office is monitoring the situation closely. grateful for the law enforcement's efforts and their continued work as this situation develops. and as you confirmed, at least one person has been killed in this incident. and they are still calling this an active shooter scene. that's the gilroy police department. we also noticed in nearby morgan
hill they are warning people to stay away from the fairgrounds, the grounds where the gilroy garlic festival annually occur. >> reporter: yep, i can hear you, natalie. >> all right. can you go ahead and talk more about what you're seeing there at the scene there? >> reporter: so this is the reunification area, and what i'm seeing is just people sort of sharing stories with one another, hugging their loved ones. there are a bunch of people now getting on to a bus. i'm not exactly sure where they're going at the moment, but i just encountered another person who witnessed what was going on. you heard from a musician just a moment ago. this is actually another musician who was up on stage, the guitar player, who actually saw the gunman. i'm going to pass the phone now to him. this is jack van -- what's your last name? jack van breen. he was about 20 feet away from the shooter.
i'm going to pass the phone to him, natalie. here you go. >> thanks, dan. jack, thanks so much for talking to us. >> hi, natalie. >> thanks so much. you saw the shooter. can you describe him? >> i can. it was i believe a white male, 30, 40 years old. i'm not real good at that. he was wearing a green top of some type. he had a gray hankdkerchief, yo know, a kerchief around his throat and a ball cap. i heard what sounded like an assault rifle. i turned and saw him and he was getting to shoot more into a large group of people. i turned to my band mates and said time to go. we cleared the stage with the sound crew and got below the stage where we would at least be not visible. >> is there any way that you can give us a sense of his demeanor? >> he seemed to be angry, but, again, he was quite, you know, 20, 30 feet from me.
and so i didn't get a good close -- and once i saw that he was shooting multiple rounds, i didn't want to stick around and, you know, talk to him. >> understood. understood. as far as where he was standing, where might he have come from if he was next to the stage? what was behind the stage? >> well, he wasn't -- it was a ways away, the start of the food cart in that part of the garlic festival. he came from the service road, as far as i could tell. that was the direction he was heading, away from the service road. there is a creek right there. he may have come from there. i don't know. >> this service road, is that the road i think i've heard described where it's closed to the public but that's what the vendors use? >> exactly so. the vendors on the north side of the park use that to access and bring in their wares, their
food, et cetera. >> did you come that way to set up as a musician? >> yes, we did come exactly that way, but we got there early. we got there about 2:30 and then we brought our gear in, we hung out behind the stage and listened to the other bands and we were just, you know, things were calm and peaceful. >> right. and when you got to the service road, was there security there to check you before you came into the festival? >> no. and that's not something that they've done in the past years. >> right. >> but there's never been anything like this. >> and we heard from your band mate christian about what happened after that, but let's hear it from you, jack. as soon as you realized that's a person with a gun, what did you do? >> as i said, i turned to my band mates and said we have to get off the stage. we and the sound crew that was on stage with us plus some volunteers from the garlic festival that were being our
support, we all got down, we crawled under the stage. the stage had what do you call it sheeting around it so you couldn't see under the stage. we all laid down quietly and hoped that he would be apprehended or at least go away. >> and, you know, jack, what was running through your mind? >> i was just, oh, my god, this is actually real. this is not watching somebody else on the news. >> right. because so many times in these instances with these -- and with festivals, as we saw in las vegas, these are just people out enjoying themselves and it's hard to comprehend. was it for you? that i'm in the middle of what seems to be a mass shooting. >> yes. it is exactly -- my first thought was this guy's going to try and shoot as many people as he can. and i've got family. i didn't want to be part of it. >> how many band members were performing?
>> tin man is a five-piece band. so the usual bass, drums, keys, singer, guitar player. >> have you been able to reach your family to let them know you're okay. >> yes. even -- even while we were still under the stage, i was able to reach my wife and kids and tell them that it's a situation we think we're okay and as soon as the officers cleared the immediate space and requested that we go to a gathering zone, i texted my family, members of my other household and my work to let them know. and then i took a moment to put a facebook post because i have a lot of friends that might have heard about it on facebook. i wanted them to know that i was safe. >> you know, when this first broke out and we were reading that it happened at the gilroy
garlic festival, that was hard to comprehend. this is a food fest value. it's been going on for decades. it supports the community. it's a family festival. have you performed there before? and what is the vibe of this festival? >> yes, this was our third year performing there with this band. i had performed twice before with a different band. we've never seen anything like that. the festival's very well-organized. they monitor alcohol consumption very closely so that you don't have the typical alcoholic disputes that you would have when you have thousands of people on the hottest weekend of year. so it's -- it's shocking. >> well, jack -- >> you know? >> we appreciate you talking with us. we're glad you're okay. thank you so much for sharing your story with us. >> you're welcome. i just hope that the families that are affected more than i can get the support they need. >> i'm sure they will. thank you for that, jack.
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