and it really is something very, very special and of course, it will never be the same and that's part of the tragedy of what's happened. the innocence of this event has been we are continuing coverage of the gilroy garlic festival shooting. >> four people died in the attack, that includes the gunman, and we know now 15 others were injured. several more were hurt while the crowd rushed away from that gunfire. >> gil roy police say they shot and killed ingunman very quickly. witnesses report a second suspect but investigators don't know exactly how that person was involved assisting in some way, an accomplice in some way it's still unclear. >> they say the suspect cut through a fence to get access to the festival. gilroy's police chief says the

gunman shot somewhat randomly throughout the festival area. >> that gunfire rang out on the third and final day, a population of 55,000 as we said, and this festival has been going on for four decades. >> they were playing on the vineyard stage and that is on the northwest side of the festival grounds. that is twh they heard those initial gunshots ring out. >> and actually one of the players actually was able to see the gunman facing the other direction. abc 7 news reporter amanda del castillo. >> reporter: gilroy police say at least a dozen agencies have responded to today's incident including agencies from santa

clara county and monterey county. while it's been pretty calm at this staging area, in the last 30 minutes we did see three buses, charter buses full of people travel away from the garlic festival grounds. were just standing a few hundred feet from that entrance. now, it's unclear who was on that bus at the time, but we do know it was likely the vendors. all day outside this specific staging area there's been about 30 vendors all on their phones, all waiting to hear when they would have access back into the festival. they say they dropped everything and ran to escape. and in that time they left their cars, they left all of their belongings and a lot of them were traveling from elsewhere, los angeles, southern california, berkeley also and they were worried about retrieving their items and going home. people we spoke with, the vendors, they say they also suffered some injuries in their escape. one woman says when she was

hiding underneath a table, that table then collapsed on her. she had a bruise on her forehead. i met another man who was holding an ice pack to his knee. here's what he had to say about what he experienced. >> thwe saw someone and they we vigorously doing cpr and heart pump because blood all over on that person and there was a few more in the other cars really injured. this is nothing. >> reporter: again he says that injury to his knee is nothing compare today the three people who were killed in this shooting including that little boy. as we are still here at this staging area, we do still see several agencies on hand. we know there's a second suspect who is related to the situation somehow. they don't know if he was also a shooter in this. we do know that the gilroy police department believes that the shooter cut through a fence

along the creek. now, i mentioned that my family was at the gilroy garlic festival today. we arrived at 10:00, left at 3:00. when we went through security it was a very brief check of what was inside our purses. i did mention i didn't see any metal detecters around me. though gilroy pd did mention that security had metal detecting wanlds. but again that didn't matter as they believe the shooter wept through the creek and cut through a fence. we are still gathering information here on scene. it is still a very active scene. you can hear the helicopters in the sky as well. goil right-of-way pd still telling people to avoid the area of christmas hill park as this is still an ongoing investigation. we'll keep asking those questions and hopefully get more answers for you as the night continues. abc 7 news. >> what a night for the day as a

festival goer at the gilroy garlic festival and ends as a reporter covering this terrible tragedy. >> yeah, another reporter who has been on the scene since this broke out at 5:45 this evening, this is at gavalan college in gilroy. you have spoken to a tremendous number of witnesses. >> reporter: that's right. we've been here and we've spoken to several witnesses that they tell me it was a terrifying scene. one of those witnesses, she said she met eyes with the suspect. she said she was working and she initially thought that gunshots were fireworks because everything took place at the end of the festival. she said she looked at her boyfriend and said, hey, are those fireworks, what's going on, and her boyfriend said, no, i don't think they are. and minutes later she looked around and realized the shooter was walking towards them.

she said she met eyes with the shooter and as he was approaching them, police officers arrived to the scene and tackled him. she also said that she witnessed when police officers shot the suspect in the head. she sent us a picture that i tweeted earlier, and it's just terrifying to hear what she had to go through. she said many of her coworkers hid with her under the table. she took out her phone and she said i have to take a picture of what's going on because she was afraid she was not going to survive this ordeal. >> i see him starting to take steps and while he was starting to take those steps it looked like he was trying to load the clip again and i seen him shoot two more times and that's i ever seen. >> did he say anything? >> nothing i could hear. from the stand, where we happen standing we were probably 30 feet and the stand was probably another 50 feet. he kept telling me to stay on the floor, stay on the floor, but i was trying to look at the

person, trying to look at him to identify him later if someone asked me because i knew what if he got away what were we going to do? i know everybody else was as frightened as i was. >> how many people were hiding with you in that area? >> in that area, 20, 15 people. >> were you guys hiding under a table? >> there was a little counter and three people were hiding behind the counter and other people were laying on the floor so they wouldn't get shot. there were just clothes separating the two stands and i fell almost to the other stand and that's where seen the rest of the people on the other side, and there was more people on that side and everybody was saying stay right here, stay right here. they kept telling me if you want to get up, please leave the stand because everyone was as frightened as i was. >> we also spoke toa music man who said they were on stage during their performance when the shooting began.

they were explaining to me they thought again there were fireworks because it was at the end of the festival, and they were playing in front of hundreds of people. and in a matter of seconds the guitar player was explaining to me he looked to the side and he saw the shooter and he told the band members we need to get down, we need to get down. they ended up hiding under the stage. he also explained to me they were trying to remain quiet. they did not want to make any sort of sound because they were afraid the shoolter was going t hear them and know they were hiding in that vicinity. it's terrifying what the people had to go through today. they were telling me they were done, they were done performing and then in the last minute, many people started shouting one more song, one more song, and that's when the shooting took place. let's hear what they said. >> we were on stage, we were doing an encore at the vineyard stage i i heard a pop. and it didn't sound right to me so i turned to the direction of

the pop and i saw a gentleman in a green top with a gray handkership kind of around his neck and what appeared to be an assault rifle. well, i'm not a gun guy so it looked like a rifle. it was bigger than a pistol, smaller than a hunting rifle, and he was slapping the magazine,tist jammed or something, i don't know. and he started shooting again in the direction of where all the food people were dining. and i said -- i said, guys out and we cleared the stage at that point and ducked under the stage so we wouldn't be visible. >> did it seem like he had a target or was he just doing -- >> from my perspective it looked like he was just firing into the the biggest bunch of people he could find. >> in that moment when you saw that -- >> i was just going holy crap. actually, i was thinking

something more stronger than that -- >> but fight or flight, we all just ran. we all ran thank god to the same side of the stage. we got down on that side and we said, look, let's get under the stage because you don't know how long it's going to last. there were at least 20 shots after that initial burst and it was close. in fact, one of the sound guys who was under the stage with us said he saw the bullets hit the stage. >> so he saw the bullets. how many? >> he said he saw like two or three that hit the ground near the stage. so from there the rest is just sound. we heard at least 20 rounds, maybe even more like 30 or more it's possible. >> what did you see? >> i heard more than saw, but i did see a lot of people

scattering in our audience. we had a few hundred people in front of our show. and when the second volley started everybody knew this was gunshots, this wasn't a lot of kids with fire crackers. and everybody was screaming and running as you would expect. and they didn't know which direction to go. but clearly the shots were coming from right off our -- the side of the stage i was over on and our keyboard player. but jack got line of sight on the guy. i didn't see him, but we all left the stage and hid underit until the police came and cleared the area, got us out. >> how many people were hiding with you guys under the stage? >> perhaps the sound crew that were up on the stage with us. you know, they have guys up there running the monitor system and so fge. s probab a dozen ouuys other? to stay quiet?

>> stay down. >> this is not what you expect at a garlic festival. this is completely the opposite. >> yeah, it was. now, we could smell the gunpowder. you could hear the screams. it just was awful. well, i think the adrenaline is beginning to leave and we're thinking how lucky we are and that there are a lot of people there that probably aren't lucky. >> but clearly he went where a lot of people were sitting and eating and the next group of people i think he was after could have been the audience because there was a lot of people ipfront of our stage. >> how many people were in front of your stage? >> and there were probably about a thousand around us between the audience on the left and yeah --

>> moving around the grounds. >> reporter: coming back to you, skr jack, you said you saw the shooter. did you see him previously? >> no, he came out from behind from the stage to our right. there's a bunch of food booths and there were some porta potties and he came out from that area. i don't know where he came because i was watching the audience and i heard the shots and then i saw him. so i'm not sure where he came from. it didn't look like he had any interaction with anybody prior to that because there was nobody around him. >> reporter: did he say anything? >> i didn't hear him say anything. after when we were under the stage trying to be safe and small i heard somebody going because i'm angry -- couldn't see him, so i don't know who it was.

>> reporter: these lives will never be the same. a day that was supposed to be one of the hottest days in july where people were going to this garlic festival to spend time with their family and friends has been completely tarnished by this horrific, horrific scene. it's incredible to hear those testimonies by all those people and just to hear the pain they speak with. and what you don't see on tv is how these people are shaking when they're telling me everything they had to see, everything they had to hear. some of them were trying to help those who were injured and it's horrible to think that people like you and i are at a place where they think they're safe. they're having a great time with their family and out of nowhere a shooting takes place and everything changes forever. one of the ladies who i interviewed several minutes ago she was explaining to us how she just took a bathroom break. she was one of the vend wrrz, took a bathroom break with her sister, came back and saw the shooter. and she described to us if she

had made a sound the shooter would have heard them because they were just a couple of feet away from him, and that her granddaughter was still at the booth waiting to her to return from the bathroom, and she was just trying to get to her granddaughter, but at the same time she was just basically feet away from the shooter trying to reach her loved one and she saw her boss also get shot. it's just horrible to think what regular people like you and i had to go through today on a day that was supposed to be a fun day for them and their families and for their businesses to be able to flourish. it's incredible, but it just shows the resilience of this community. also many people we spoke to today told us they are ready to keep going. they're going to recover, they're going to keep going and that's all you can ask. back to you guys. >> that is all you can ask, and i think it's hard not to have tears well up or get goose bumps listening to these witness accounts. we should also mention it's

remarkable the calm demeanor of all of these people. >> it really -- quite courageous actually, and you're right. and so many of them have provided to us and no doubt to police as well a very descriptive detail, clear accounts of what they saw in just a terrifying and horrific circumstance. speaking of calm but effective response, authorities have rushed very quickly, of course the garlic festival has filled with police officers providing security, but we want to listen now to the police response after the first shots rang out in gilroy at about 5:51 today. listen. >> active shooter at the garlic festival. if you could start that way. >> responding. >> we're getting numerous calls on it. pd is advising shooter south of miller in the creek wearing

camouflage and a hat. you got two more wounded and county has been advised for the helicopters. >> i'll find out where we can get the victims closest to us. i need you to go ahead and setup for a landing zone. >> i'm trying to corral all the victims into one area. that tented area is going to be the pd holding compound. i'll get an update in a sec. >> rescue group, we're going in with pd cover to assess further victims in the garlic festival. >> calm and efificient as authorities tried to figure out how to respond as fast as they could. let's get to now abc 7 reporter kate larson who's been at the santa clara medical center in san jose all day long.

this is where some of the shooting victims have been taken. kate? >> reporter: that's right. seven gunshot victims were taken here to santa clara valley medical center and i'm told unfortunately one patient was actually already discharged today and the remaining six patients here are from fair to critical conditions. so still a lot of people still in serious trouble tonight after being shot at the garlic festival earlier this evening. there's one family here, a group of 30 people who went to the garlic festival together as a family. they were all here, 20 of them from mexico to celebrate one of their family members weddings. well, unfortunately they were all near the shooter and one of them, a 12-yar-old little girl was shot in the leg. now i spoke to three cousins who told me what they saw and heard tonight. >> he let off one of the shots and i thought it was like a firework. then i saw him put the weapon up like this and he started like --

a lot of shooting. >> i thought it was a balloon and then the other shots started coming. we saw the guy who was shooting and we just ran. we didn't know she got shot. we were running with her, and when we saw she already had a hole in the leg so we started like going to the woods, and we started like breaking like all the branches and we just lay her down and we just, like, i took off my shirt and we did like this thing, i don't know what it's called to cover the leg. so it stopped bleeding. >> but when i saw him loading the gun and pointing at everybody, that's when i knew -- he wasn't the police. so -- >> you were the second person here at the hospital tonight who told me that they thought the gunman was law enforcement. why is it? what was it he was wearing? >> he had a brown vest with the green pants and the hat. >> show what did you do when you

realized that, no, this is not a police officer? >> i grabbed my kids and i started running towards the parking lot, but then -- but then i saw my uncle that he was going on the floor, and when i turned i saw that the shooter was coming towards us, so i just told my uncle to hey, just stand up, we need to keep running, you can't be here. so we just kept on running. >> when you said you saw your uncle on the ground, was he running after you or walking? >> no, he was just walking and aiming, walking and shooting. but he was just shooting everywhere. >> reporter: i mean it's just hard to imagine especially when you think of all the children who were right there and that man you just heard from holding his 4 and 1-year-old daughters as he ran from a shooter with his uncle. just unimaginable. i just spoke to the little girl who was shot in the leg, the

cousin of all the men you just heard from. her father and her aunt tell me she's actually doing well and they hope she's discharged tomorrow. so that's a little bit of good news. they've all been here so stressed out after what happened that a lot of them are needed medical attention for things like high blood pressure and anxiety. so the emotions are of course understandably very high, completely traumatized because who would ever think this would happen at the gilroy garlic festival of all places. also just a little while ago we got an update from the spokeswoman for this hospital group. they run this hospital in san jose and then also st. louise in gilroy. in total they received 19 patients at the two hospitals. 11 of those were gunsho wound victims and then eight of them were non-gunshot wound victims. so people who sprained their ankle when they were running away from the gunman during all of that chaos here in san jose at the santa clara am medical

center they got seven patients in total. one of those patients was discharged tonight, that means that person is doing relatively well and six more are here. one of those patients unfortunately died earlier, two were discharged tonight and another one is still being treated there and is in serious condition tonight. so we remain here at the hospital waiting for updates. we do hope that more patients are discharged tonight and, you know, i'm just hanging onto that little bit of good news that this 12-year-old girl who was shot while her whole family surrounded her is doing better tonight. >> that really is good news. kate, we appreciate that update and really earlier we even heard because of the number of victims that at one point they were transported being piled on top of each other in golf carts trying to get them to transportation to get to the hospital. >> even a moving van or box truck or some kind because they couldn't get the ambulances in

time. so whatever people had to do they did. abc 7 news reporter melanie woodrow is in the newsroom. she's been following developments there and also looking more into the really great history of the garlic festival for four decades. >> reporter: what we want to tell you about right now is one of the victims, the youngest victim. of course a shooting at the garlic festival is senseless. the idea that one of those victims was just 3 years old is almost unfathomable. one of our photographers, alex gray, spoke with that 3-year-old's grandmother at the hospital a short time ago. she described the moments of learning that her 3-year-old grandson had been shot and killed. this is what she had to say. >> we got a call from san juan saying than my grandson got shot i his mom and his grandmother, his other grandmother, so we run out looking for them. my son is the first one who got notified where they were.

and i went from hospital to hospital looking for him, but my son told me he was over here and we came over. but when i got here he was already dead. well, it's the worst because he's so little and so skinny. he's a really tiny baby, you know, so -- >> reporter: and i want to correct what i said earlier. that is the grandmother of a 6-year-old victim who was shot and killed at the garlic festival. and you can almost sense that she is still likely in shock as she learned that news. so we're going to hear more certainly within the next 24 hours about the victims, their ages, and of course as my colleague, kate, was just saying many of those victims are gunshot victims and then many more are people who were running for their lives and were injured as they were running for their lives. dan and deon? >> thanks, melanie. and we should point out that in developing breaking news like

this the circumstances and facts tend to change. we heard it was a 3-year-old boy that was killed and now the latest information is that it's a 6-year-old boy. either way a terrible tragedy, of course but sometimes the specifics do shift a little bit as we get more information. >> they really do. in the meantime we were also hearing from another man who happened to be nearby when that shooting happened. >> first let's share some tweets with you. >> that's right. let's take a look right now. our president even weighing in. this was earlier on in the evening. donald trump tweeting out saying law enforcement is at the scene of the shootings in gilroy that wave already known. reports that the shooter has not yet been apprehended, be careful and safe. >> that was earlier. we now know the shooter has been killed by police. from the governor, gavin newsom, this is nothing short of terrific. my office is monitoring the situation closely, grateful for

the law enforcement's efforts and their continued work as this situation develops. that's from the governor. >> and we continue getting comments and tweets from various law enforcement, not to mention also political figures. earlier in the evening we also heard from senator calm lah harris and as you can see right here grateful to first responders who were on the scene in gilroy. keeping those injured by such senseless violence in my thoughts. her office is closely monitoring the situation. >> and from libby. my heart goes out to all those in gilroy tonight, our congress can end this tragedy now. >> and also we want to advance to sam liccardo saying praying for lives and recoveries for each of the shooting victims at the gilroy garlic festival. we will continue to support our neighbors as we can. >> and he says it happened near

a tent that was serving beer and food. >> i was sitting at the table at the front right behind me when the shooting started. and when the little kid asked me were there fireworks it was almost 6:00 and we looked back and there were no fireworks and that's when somebody got shot and the crowd went crazy. and we heard it was like three guns it sounded like. and everybody ran, we got on the ground. my niece just told me that one of the ladies who's a mexican lady had got shot in the neck. we put a bunch of kids on the ground, lady with babies on the ground and we tried to get up and go again and then the shooting started again. >> now, felten says all he could do was help kids and other people get to safety, and it sounds like what he and others near him did. >> speaking of getting to safety gilroy police have created a phone line for not only

witnesses today but also families looking to be reunited with other family members, perhaps friends. the number you see on your screen right now is 408-846-0583. police, they are asking for anyone who saw something today to call that number immediately. they are asking you to not call the emergency line. >> all right, and let's share with you some new video we have from the ground of the scene after the shooting at the gilroy garlic festival. three victims confirmed dead including a 6 dwrooerld boy we know. the suspect a gunman killed. there is still some question whether he had an accomplice, someone who may have been seen cuing their way through a fence. you can see the police spnts was very quick because thousands of people were at the gilroy

festival. there were already police in and around the grounds. >> there were about 100,000 attendees. the executive director of that festival spoke at a news conference earlier today at gavalan college in gilroy. >> it is an amazing community, a tight-knit community. we're a family. we have the wonderful opportunity in this community to celebrate our family through our garlic festival. and for over four decades that festival has been our annual family reunion. and it is such a sad just horribly upsetting circumstance that this happened on the third and final day of this year's festival.

our 4,000 plus local volunteers work so hard every year. and to have seen this event end this way this day is just one of the most tragic and sad things i've ever had to see. >> so often in these situations i think the term tight-knit is used but really in this one it pertains. we're talking about a town thaf 55,000 that expands and balloons to over 100,000 over the course of three days. >> and as brian mentioned there's 4,000 local folks volunteering to put this thing on. they're very proud of the gilroy garlic festival with good reason. also at that news conference a little more than an hour ago gilroy police also spoke. and we want to share a little bit of what they had to say. >> obviously this is one of those press conferences you never want to have to give in

your community. >> can you speak louder because you're very soft? >> sure. this is one of those press conferences you never want to have to give in your community and it's sort of a nightmare you hope to never have to live in reality but unfortunately we find ourselves in the circumstance we have to live this today. i'm going to give you some brief information with the information i have right now. we have literally dozens of officers working on this as we speak, so a lot more information will be coming to light throughout the evening and into the morning tomorrow. and as we have additional information to share, we'll push out through our social media platforms. we'll setup another press conference so we can share that information with you. this incident tonight started at about 5:41 p.m. there were reports of shooting

on the north side of the garlic festival area. officers were in that area and engaged the suspect in less than a minute. the suspect was shot and killed. it appears as though they had come into the festival via the creek which borders a parking area and they used some sort of a tool to cut through the fence to be able to get access through the secure fence line, and that's how they got into the festival area itself. we have one suspect we know that is down. we have some witnesses reporting there may have been a second suspect, but we don't know if that suspect was engaged in any shooting or whether they may have been in any support role for the person that we have accounted for.

we have at least 15 people injured. we have four fatalities that we know of including the suspect. the officers that engaged the suspect obviously we have a protocol we need to deal with for that so santa clara county has a protocol for dealing with officer involved shootings. so that's another layer of complexity with the shooting we're investigating from the suspect. we put out a call for assistance. we had many, many officers in the park at the time that this occurred as we do any day during a festival which accounts for the very, very quick response time. when we put out the call for help we've gotten help from agencies all across santa clara county and monterey county. and i can't thank those agencies

enough. they came from, you know, pretty good distances away to be here to help support and provide assistance with our investigation in dealing with the chaos at the scene at the time it occurred. we have setup some things, you know, a reunification because, you know, in the panic people go out differet ways than they came in and families got separated. and so we have this area setup as a reunification area to try to reunite families that got separated. we also have a phone number for families to be able to call and we have people staffing those phone numbers to be able to work the reunification process. that phone number is area code 408-846-0584. we also are asking for any witnesses because there was quite a number of people in the

park. anybody that witnessed this incident that can tell us anything that took any photographs, that perhaps videotaped anything that might be relevant to this investigation to please contact us, and we've setup a special phone number for witnesses as well, and that phone number is 408-846-0583. and that's about what i know at this point in time. >> at this point you're not certain there is a second suspect that witnesses may have identified a second one but you're not entirely confident? >> we believe based on witness statements that there was a second individual involved in some way. we just don't know in what way. >> do you have a description of this person? >> i do not at this point. >> do we know anything about the suspect? >> i don't have any information on the suspect yet.

that will take a little bit of time. as with the victims as well, that will take some time before we identify them and make family notifications. >> what is being done to apprehend the second suspect if there is a second suspect? >> as i've said we've gotten assistance from literally dozens of law enforcement agencies across two counties. so we have teams working to try to track down and identify leads regarding the second suspect. we're very hopeful that with the witnesses and statements people are able to give us, that will help us to do that. >> do you have security cameras at the festival? >> security cameras? no, not posted security cameras, no. >> the second person was not armed, is that correct? >> we do not know the involvement of the second person at this time.

you know, i don't know what the injuries are. i haven't got a report on that. i do know that the list that they're keeping, the master list, it was up to 15 people the last time i looked at it. and that included the four -- i have no idea what the motive is at this point. >> what did witnesses report seeing that suggested there was a second shooter? >> i don't have specifics on that other than people reported a subject leaving the area that they thought was associated with this person. it w it was gilroy officers that engage would the suspect, yes. i do not age range at this point, i'm sorry. we'll be able to get more of that when we do an update tomorrow. >> do you know if children were

among the fatalities? >> i do not know. >> what kind of weapon? >> used some sort of rifle but i don't know what type of rifle it was. >> we talked to people who went to the festival that had questions about security. do you know did people have to pass through metal detecters to get inside? >> yes, they do have to go through metal detecters. they have wands they use on people. they search bags. we have very tight security for getting people into the festival. >> it appears this guy got in cutting through a fence, is that correct? >> the indications initially given to me is that they used some sort of tool to cut through a perimeter fence to gain access. >> we heard reports hat tthat t shooter was dressed as a officer, have you heard that at all? >> i have not heard that. it is an active scene and because of the magnitude it will continue to be active for some time. >> a witness said that the

person was dressed in camouflage clothes. >> i do not know. >> we're told the shooter was shooting at random. >> i don't feel comfortable making an assumption, but it appears that way at least initially it was somewhat random as he moved out into the festival area. well, i'll make that the last question. you know, the city of gilroy is an incredible community, and we have incredible people here. and i'm really proud to have been the chief here and, you know, lead this force because we have such a wonderful community and community support.

and i think that this festival is a perfect example of that because it takes literally thousands of our residents that volunteer their time to come put this on for people and to raise funds for all of our community based organizations and charities and whatnot. and you can't say that about a lot of communities. and i think that the number of people that are willing to give their time for the betterment of other people is a wonderful thing, and it's just incredibly sad and disheartening that an event that does so much good for our community has to suffer from a tragedy like this. >> did you say a manhunt is under way for the second -- >> just in case you didn't hear the question, is it fair to say there's a manhunt under way for the second suspect and he says

yes. still not clear if there was another accomplice. doesn't sound like there was somebody else with a gun. witnesses say they thought somebody might have been helping him so we'll have to see. >> and we should learn some new information at a press conference tomorrow morning so we will of course be following that as well. >> abc reporter amanda del costillo at gilroy high school. >> you spoke to festival vendors who happened to be just feet away from that shooting. >> reporter: yeah, and they say because it was the third and final day of the gilroy garlic festival they initially thought that the shots ringing out were fireworks celebrating, again, a very successful gilroy garlic weekend. that was not the case, unfortunately. feet away from these vendors that i spoke with they say they saw people running. it was a mad dash to escape, and in that escape some people experienced or suffered some injuries, but nothing compared

to what more than a dozen people are recovering from in the hospital right now. and we know three people have been confirmed dead and the fourth would be that shooter who was also killed on site. we are standing at gilroy high school. this is just a few hundred yards from the entrance from the gilroy festival grounds i should say. it has been pretty common the last few hours. this has been the staging area for several agencies. more than a dozen from across santa clara county and monterey county all here to respond to today's incident. now, i did speak with vendors again who just described that sheer chaos. one woman says that she hid underneath a table and in doing so that table fell down on her and she had a visible mark on her forehead. i want you to take a listen to what she experienced. >> he's very close and i can hear not only one two, three, just a lot -- like that.

and somebody grabbed me, and bring me around and we go down in the ground, and he's like put your head down. >> reporter: now, she was one of about 30 vendors who sat outside this staging area for hours this afternoon waiting on some direction from gilroy garlic officials wanting to know if they were going to be able to return to the grounds to retrieve their belongings, if they were going to be able to grab their cars because a lot of them had traveled from long distances, far across the state of california even. i should mention my family was at the gilroy festival today from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., during the entire day regardless of that california, or bay area heat wave i should mention, there were hundreds of people, if not thousands. we know 100,000 people were expected across this three-day stretch. but today it was still very crowded, so that chaos, just

imagining all those people running around, a lot of people asking what led up to this. those -- we're still waiting for those answers. another thing i have to mention is that when we checked in the security lines and the security guards had metal detector wands, that was confirmed by gilroy police. but when i showed up, i opened my purse, the security guard kind of joked and said you don't have a knife in there do you or a gun and we giggled and i went on my way and enjoyed just like everyone else was hours at the gilroy festival up until this moment. it happened around 5:41 this afternoon. it's still a very active scene. gilroy police have warned not to go near christmas hill park, to avoid that area specifically as they are still searching for that second suspect they believe is involved in some way. it may not have been a shooter but they do believe there's a second person involved in today's incident. we are still waiting to hear

more about what happened, what led up to it. we are seeing a lot of that video posted to social media. just very, very chaotic. and again the last day at the gilroy garlic festival. a lot of people not even realizing they were gunshots until it was too late. reporting live, abc 7 news. >> we appreciate that first-hand account. and we said this earlier it is so true. amanda going there with her family earlier in the day and not going she would be going back later on as a reporter with these witness accounts. >> let's go to abc 7 news reporter melanie woodrow. she's in the newsroom once again with more from the grandmother of one of the victims. >> reporter: this was supposed of people there with their loved ones and of course a lot of very young chirp. and one of the youngest victims in all of this just 6 years old. one of our photographers alex gray spoke with that

6-year-old's grandmother a short time ago at that hospital. she described the moments of finding out that her grandson had been shot and killed. i would never think in my life i could go through something like this, but this is -- i don't have words for this. i cannot describe the way i feel right now. >> reporter: speechless, of course. that grandmother finding out her young grandson 6 years old, shot and killed at the festival today. over over the next 24 hours and plus we'll learn more about the victims in all of this, people who were shot and killed and then many more victims who were also injured as they were running for their lives. dan and dion. >> we've aurdliest one reporter with a broken ankle trying to get out of harms way. let's get toluise penna and some

of the witness accounts we've been hearing from you are hard to stomach. >> reporter: it's incredible to hear and imagine what they went through. one of the women i interviewed she and her sister were taking a bathroom break and they were going back to their booth. they were selling honey today and they had left their granddaughter at the booth and they were walking back to meet up with her, their 11-year-old granddaughter. as they working to her, they saw the shooter, they heard the gunshots and they panicked and they stood there and they tell me they didn't move because they were afraid the shooter was going to hear them. it's incredible to imagine that your loved one is just feet away from you and her grandmother couldn't walk to her because she was afraid to move because the shooter was just feet away from her. it's just the credible.

also i interviewed a band they were playing in the moments when the shooting began. they tell me at first they thought there were fireworks because the garlic festival was ending. and it's incredible because they were saying they were done. it was 5:30, they were done playing and people started shouting one more song, one more song and they played that one last song and started hearing the gunshots. the guitar player looked to the side, he realized there was in fact a shooter. he told his band members we need to get down, we need to get off the stage and they ended up hiding under the stage. >> we were doing an encore at the vineyard stage and i heard a pop. that didn't sound right to me so i turned nat direction of the pop and i saw a gentleman in a green top with a gray handker

shf around his neck and it looked like a rifle, bigger than a pistol, smaller than a huntin rifle. and he was slapping the magazine, evidently it was jammed or something, i don't know. and he started shooting again in the direction of where all the food people were dining. and i said -- i said, guys, out and we cleared the stage at that point and ducked under the stage so we wouldn't be visible. >> reporter: did it seem he had a target or was he just doing this -- >> it seemed from my per expectative it looked like he was firing into the biggest bunch of people he could find. so -- >> reporter: in that moment when you saw that? >> i was just going holy crap. actually i was thinking something more stronger than that. >> but fight flight -- we all just ran. we all ran thank god to the same side of the stage. we got down on that side and

then we said, look, let's get under the stage because you don't know how long it's going to last. there were at least 20 shots after that initial burst, and it was close. >> in fact, one of the guys, sound guys who was under the stage with us said he saw the bullets hit the stage. >> reporter: so he saw the bullets. how many? >> he said -- well, he said he saw like two or three that hit the ground near the stage. so from there the rest is just sound. we heard at least 20 rounds, maybe even more like 30 or more it's possible. >> reporter: what did you see? >> i heard more than saw, but i did see a lot of people scattering in our audience. we had a few hundred people in front of our show. and when the second volley started everybody knew this was gunshots. this wasn't kids with fire crackers. and everybody was screaming and

running, as you would expect. and they didn't know which direction to go, but clearly the shots were coming from right off our side -- the side of the stage that i was over on and our keyboard player. but jack got line of sight on the guy. i didn't see him, but we all left the stage and hid under it until the police came and cleared the area, got us out. >> reporter: how many people were hiding with you guys under the stage? >> half the sound crew that were up on the stage with us. you know, they have guys up there running the monitor system and so forth and then all of us. so there's probably half of -- >> and two backstage. >> and there were a couple of ladies there. so probably a dozen people. >> reporter: what were you guys telling each other? stay quiet. >>. >> stay down. >> reporter: this is not what you expect at a garlic festival. this is completely the opposite. >> yeah, it was. >> that's what it felt like. >> we could smell the gunpowder.

you could hear the screams. it just was awful. and not going to be fun to think about. so -- >> reporter: how are you feeling right now? >> i think the adrenaline is beginning to leave and we're thinking how lucky we are and there are a lot of people there that probably aren't lucky. >> clearly he went where a lot of people were sitting and eating and the next group of people i think he was after could have been the audience because there was a lot of people in front of our stage. >> reporter: how many people were in front of our stage and then -- >> a couple hundred. >> and there were probably about a thousand around us between the audience to the left and -- yeah. >> moving around the grounds. >> reporter: coming back to you, jack, you said you saw the shooter. what did you see? did you see him previously? >> no. he came out from behind the

stage to our right, there's a bunch of food booths. and there were some porta potties and he came out from that area. i don't know where he came because i was watching the audience and i heard the shots and then i saw him. so i'm not sure where he came from. it didn't look like he had any interaction to anybody prior to that because there was nobody around him. >> reporter: did he say anything? >> i didn't hear him say anything. after when we were under the stage trying to be safe and small, i heard somebody going because i'm angry. couldn't see him, so i don't know who it was. >> reporter: the sense of panic and fear that many of those witnesses lived through today is uncomparable. many of them tell me they won't be able to sleep tonight, they won't be able to remove those images from their minds. and something that many of these people we interviewed today told

me is that they were thankful. they were thankful to gilroy police because they acted so fast. and they're thankful to be here today, those who we interviewed. it's so sad to think that today, a beautiful day, a hot day turned out to be such out to be catastrophy for so many people here in gilroy. >> the response was tremendous. not only was it fast but it came at a furious pace. i mean dozens upon dozens of first responders really just descended. >> as we now know the gilroy police officer that engaged this gunman, less than a minute into the attack killed the cgunman. otherwise the shooting could have continued much longer. a lot of people who witnessed the panic and heard the gunshots shared their experience on social media. >> are you okay? that is tough to listen to.

you can hear that one woman sobbing, a wounded man lay bleeding in the back of that white pickup truck she is in. these are just some of the videos people have been sharing with abc 7 news. and really they give us a sense of the confusion, the chaos. you can see the camera work all over the place as people just ran away from the gunfire in all directions. now at first many people thought the sound was fireworks. we do know at least a dozen people suffered injuries as the crowd rushed away. so people literally running for their lives. >> yeah, four people died in the attack. three victims and that includes one gunman. so three victims, one gunman. 15 others were injured. several more were hurt while the crowd rushed away from the gunfire. about 24 people were taken to the hospital. some of those were not shot. they were injured in the rush to get out of harms way. gilroy police say they shot and killed the gunman as i said about a minute or so after the

attack. >> we do want to give you a vantage point from sky 7 that was flying overhead where you can see the scope how large this festival was and how many people responded on the ground there. we have multiple crews, atf on the scene along with numerous police agencies really responding as quickly as they can to make sense of what happened just after 5:45. >> gilroy's police chief says the gunman shot somewhat randomly throughout the festival area. and this gunman perhaps with an accomplice. that's not been confirmed. cut through a fence along a creek that runs through the parking area along the fair grounds. that's how they bypassed security and got in with the gun or guns, maybe more than one. we don't know yet and started shooting. what we've not yet heard because we simply don't know and the

gunman is dead is why in the world would someone do this? >> we expect to hear more information at a press conference tomorrow morning. we do want to remind you, you can be the first to learn about new updates on this shooting using the abc 7 news app. you can find it in your devices app store. >> we're certainly grad you've joined us this evening on such a terrible day. we appreciate you taking the time to stay with us here. abc 7 morning news will have more for you, the very latest at 4:30, but for now i'm dan

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