Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting witness: 'I feel like he made eye contact with me'

WPVI logo
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Witness says Gilroy shooter 'made eye contact with me'
For Litzy Munguia, time became a blur as shots rang out at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California that has left at three people dead and 12 injured.

GILROY, Calif. -- For Litzy Munguia, time became a blur as shots rang out at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California that left three people dead and 12 injured.



Munguia said she had just closed up her booth and was walking with her boyfriend when she heard what sounded firecrackers.



Witness Litzy Munguia describes the moments she saw one gunment fire shots into a crowd at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

"We ignored it, we thought it was like a rifle from a marathon," she said.



Those sounds were gunfire.



"We turned around when we heard the gunshots; we'd seen a guy. He was dressed in camouflage and like an orange vest and I thought he was a cop," Munguia said.



Litzy Munguia says she heard several gunshots while she was walking around the Gilroy Garlic Festival.


Munguia said she was approximately 30 feet away when she saw a man with a big rifle, who was shooting into the crowd.



"I literally felt like he stared straight at me where we were at, and when I saw him stare straight at me, I saw the cops shoot him," she said.


That's when she said her boyfriend pushed her toward a stand to hide. Munguia said she heard people telling her to lay on the floor.



Video taken by Litzy Munguia shows people running away after shots were fired.


"I was scared," she said. "I thought we were going to get shot."



Munguia is from the town of Tulare in California's Central Valley. She said she's been to countless events just like the garlic festival, but never thought this would happen near her.



"I'm thankful for my life. I'm thankful that I'm going to go home," she said.



Authorities say one suspect is in custody and a second is still at large.



A young woman who witnessed the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival describes the terror as she made eye contact with the gunman.
Copyright © 2024 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.