FBI opening domestic terrorism investigation into Gilroy garlic festival shooting in California

The FBI has launched a domestic terrorism investigation into the deadly shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California, an official said on Tuesday. 

John Bennett, the FBI agent in charge in San Francisco, confirmed during a news conference the discovery of a target list purportedly authored by the suspected shooter, adding that organizations and individuals on the list would be notified about the security threat.

{mosads}”Due to the discovery of the target list … the FBI has opened a full domestic terrorism investigation,” Bennett said. “We are still looking for the motive in this crime, but due to the information we have uncovered, we are opening a full domestic terrorism investigation.”

The targets, he added, are “religious, they are government, they are [in] political parties, on both sides of the House.”

The investigation comes just over a week after a gunman killed three people and injuring 13 others at the annual food festival before fatally shooting himself. Police say the gunman, identified as 19-year-old Santino William Legan, was in possession of white supremacist and anti-Islam literature at his Nevada home as well as supplies for a large-scale attack.

Weapons discovered after the shooting, including a semi-automatic rifle used in the attack and a shotgun found in Legan’s car, were purchased legally in Nevada, the FBI added Tuesday.

Law enforcement officials told reporters earlier that determining an exact motive would take time.

“Reviewing digital media, historically, has been very revealing in terms of somebody’s mind-set, ideological beliefs, intentions,” an FBI spokesman said last week. “We’ve got to get into the computers, the towers, the thumb drive, the phone, to get a holistic picture of him and who he was in touch with, what sentiments and thoughts he shared with others, what he cataloged for his own consumption.”

–This report was updated at 3:09 p.m.