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Coroner: California garlic festival gunman killed himself

Gilroy Garlic festival shooting
Posted at 4:44 PM, Aug 02, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-02 18:44:46-04

GILROY, Calif. (AP) — The Santa Clara County coroner's office says the gunman in the deadly Northern California festival shooting killed himself, a finding that contradicts earlier police accounts that officers fired the fatal shot.

Santino William Legan, 19, shot and killed three people — including two children — Sunday at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Nicole Lopez, a senior office specialist in the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office, says Friday that Legan's cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee had previously said Legan was shot and killed by three officers who responded in less than a minute. Smithee has called the officers "heroes" for preventing additional casualties by taking down the shooter.

Gilroy police have scheduled a news conference for Friday afternoon.