Band member recounts exchange with shooter at California garlic festival

A road sign marks the Garlic Festival parking area in Gilroy, California on Sunday, July 28, 2019. Multiple people were hospitalized Sunday after a shooting at the annual food festival in Northern California, a hospital spokeswoman said. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

GILROY, California — The band Tin Man was just starting an encore when shots rang out at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California.

Singer Jack van Breen said he saw a man wearing a green shirt and grayish handkerchief around his neck fire into the food area with what looked like an assault rifle.

Van Breen and other members of the band dove under the stage. Van Breen said he heard someone shout: “Why are you doing this?” and the reply: “Because I’m really angry.”

His bandmate Vlad Malinovsky from Walnut Creek, California, said he heard a lot of shots and then it stopped. Later, law enforcement came by and told band members and others hiding with them to come out with their hands up.

A city official said the gunman killed three and wounded 12 in the late Sunday afternoon shooting. /kga