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Nevada Gun Shop Owner: Gilroy shooter ‘acting happy’ when buying gun

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (KLAS/KRON) — The suspect in a shooting that left three people dead and more than a dozen injured at the Gilroy Garlic Festival Sunday bought the gun in Nevada almost three weeks before the shooting.

According to Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee, 19-year-old Santino William Legan purchased the gun on July 9.


A gun shop in Fallon, Nevada posted on social media Monday, saying the gunman ordered the rifle used in the shooting online.

Big Mike’s Guns and Ammo said on Facebook, the store would never sell a firearm to “anyone who acted wrong or looks associated with any bad group like white power.”

The store said they are a small home business that sells to people it believes are upstanding citizens.

” We pray for the victims. My heart hurts for all of them,” the store said in a social media posting.

An online database indicates Legan lived in an apartment on the shore of Walker Lake from May to July this year. Walker Lake is about 325 miles northwest of Las Vegas on U.S. 95.

This image shows a building on Cliff House Road in Walker Lake, Nev., the address listed for Santino William Legan, who was killed by police after a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, Calif., on Sunday, July 28, 2019. (Google Earth)

The company that rents out the apartment where he lived said he was only there for three days, and he demanded a refund when he left.

“I don’t know how long he was in Nevada or how long he had been back,” Smithee said during a late morning news conference.

Smithee did not say where in Nevada the gun was purchased. Legan is believed to have lived in California.

A 6-year-old boy, 13-year-old girl and man in his early 20s were killed in the shooting. At least 15 people were wounded. Police say they have no motive for the shooting. Police are also investigating the possibility of a second shooter which some witnesses reported.

Legan was shot and killed by police officers who were already at the festival. Smithee said the number of victims could have been much higher if it weren’t for the quick response of the officers.

On Monday morning, FBI agents searched the apartment at Walker Lake, assisted by Mineral County sheriff’s deputies. No information was released about what authorities found.

A news release from the Mineral County DA’s office indicated that Legan is believed to have used the apartment in the days prior to the shooting.

Mineral County Sheriff Randy Adams said, “Mineral County deputies supported FBI agents by obtaining a search warrant for a unit in a triplex located at Walker Lake.”