Gilroy Gunman Cited White Supremacist Manifesto on Instagram Just Before Shooting

A gunman who killed three people at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday evening posted about a white supremacist book on Instagram before firing into the crowd, according to screenshots of an account that has since been taken down.

The gunman, identified by police as 19-year-old Santino William Legan, injured 15 people and killed three others, including a 6-year-old boy being he was shot and killed by Gilroy police. In the aftermath, screenshots began circulating on social media of the Instagram account @santino_williamlegan, which has been removed by Instagram.

Writer and actress Amanda Duarte tweeted a screenshot of a post apparently by Legan of Smokey Bear and promoting a white supremacist book from 1980.

"His Instagram was just taken down, but before it was, I saw a post from the festival right before the shooting that said 'Read Might Is Right by Ragnar Redbeard,' which is a misogynist white power manifesto," Durate tweeted in part.

Might Is Right or The Survival of the Fittest pushed Social Darwinism and was described by revisionist historian James Martin as "surely one of the most incendiary works ever to be published anywhere."

Besides advocating for the book which claims the Anglo-Saxon race is superior and that women are the property of men, @santino_williamlegan wrote: "Why overcrowd towns and pave more open space to make room for hordes of mestizos and Silicon Valley white twats?"

"I'm not saying the shooting was racially motivated — I think this guy just hated everyone," Duarte also tweeted. "But this is a fact worth knowing."

Another screenshot of the account shows a photo of the festival and a caption by @santino_williamlegan stating, "Ayyy garlic festival time. Come get wasted on overpriced shit."

A spokesperson for Facebook, which purchased Instagram in 2012, told Newsweek in an email Monday: "Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. Content that praises, supports or represents the shooting or anyone responsible violates our Community Guidelines and we will continue to remove as soon as we identify it."

The profile of @santino_williamlegan stated he was Italian and Iranian.

Legan's grandfather, Tom Legan, was a Santa Clara County supervisor for two terms and in 1988 was acquitted of allegedly raping his oldest daughter.

Santino William Legan opened fire on attendees of the Northern California festival around 5:40 p.m. using an assault-style rifle. Police shot and killed Legan within a minute of the shooting and believe he cut through a fence near a creek to enter the festival. A manhunt is underway for a possible accomplice.