Shooting investigation leaves vendors waiting to retrieve items from Gilroy festival grounds

Police allowed the first wave of people near Christmas Hill Park Monday, just days after a deadly mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Many people left everything they had inside the festival when they had to run for their lives.

Some vendors told KION they desperately needed to get items that were left behind, including products, medication and cellphones, but despite the urgency, they remember the panic and horror from Sunday afternoon. Vendors ducked and dashed for cover as gunshots rang through the air.

“I had people dive into my booth with a kid and try to hide,” said jewelry vendor John Shipp.

The main entrance to the Gilroy Garlic Festival remained blocked off Tuesday and guarded. Small vigils were placed at the side of the road for the victims.

People are still trying to process what happened.

“It was just so unreal. Like this is our town, this is my town,” said Matt O’Neal, a Gilroy local and vendor who was there at the festival on the day of the shooting. “Gilroy is a small town and that’s a family event.”

The tragedy weighs heavy on their hearts, but some also wonder when they will be able to collect their belongings stuck behind the crime scene’s caution tape.

“I have $100,000 worth of jewelry in my booth,” Shipp said. “This is my kid’s education, this is college, you know. I have to protect it.”

Vendors and volunteers were allowed to pick up their cars and belongings from certain parking lots Tuesday, but the inside of Christmas Hill Park still remains closed as law enforcement continues their investigation.

“So many others left without their medications,” Shipp said. “My friend Ellen, she said, ‘I don’t have my purse, I don’t have my ID card, insurance card.'”

Shipp hopes he will soon be able to get in to tear down his booth and cut his losses after an already tragic weekend.

But despite this issue, vendors who live locally remain hopeful that Gilroy will rise above the tragedy.

“We’re not going to back down and we’ll stand up to evil every time that it comes here,” O’Neal said.

Volunteers and vendors will have a 6-hour window Wednesday to recover their cars. Starting at 9 a.m., they can go to Antonio Del Buono Elementary School where they’ll be shuttled in. Drivers must also bring a license, and proof of registration and insurance. But the park itself will still not be open.

No word on when festival attendees from the public will be able to collect belongings from the park.