Five victims of the mass shooting at July’s Gilroy Garlic Festival have filed a lawsuit against organizers of the event, saying the venue’s “woefully deficient” security was the reason the festival was targeted.
The plaintiffs — Francisco Aguilera, Justin Bates, Nick McFarland, Brynn Ota-Matthews and Wendy Towner — claimed in their lawsuit the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association had “negligent security measures” for an event that brings in thousands of people to the Northern California town of nearly 59,000.
“People in Gilroy know you can hop the fence and get in for free,” attorney Randall Scarlett said in a statement.
“Obviously security was woefully deficient. Festival organizers owed a duty to protect the community members attending their event from the foreseeable and dangerous risk of shooters. No one should undertake to organize and promote a large public event without taking steps to make their attendees safe. It is simply unfathomable that they would not have better planned this event,” he said.
The lawsuit accuses the festival of having an outdated security contract that allowed a “flimsy” fence to be cut through on July 28th by the shooter — Santino William Legan — and open fire on the festival grounds, leading to three dead and 13 injured.
Security measures that day included the fence, a bag check, metal detectors and police patrols, officials said.
Police authorities said that once they returned Legan’s gunfire, he fatally shot himself. The motive for the shooting is still unknown.
Festival officials responded in a statement saying they would work with the community to properly handle the lawsuit.
“The lawsuit filed today, stemming from a horrific act of domestic terrorism, is not unexpected, and we will respond through the appropriate legal channels,” they said, according to New York Daily News. “As a nonprofit organization, we must remain focused on our mission: fundraising for the entire community of Gilroy and the more than 150 charities that rely on us.”
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