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13-Year-Old Gilroy Garlic Festival Victim May Have Saved a Relative

“If Keyla hadn’t been there, her stepfather’s mother would have been shot,” Salazar’s aunt said.

Thirteen-year-old Keyla Salazar, one of the three victims of the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting, may have saved one of her relatives’ lives, according to her aunt. Katiuska Vargas told the Associated Press that Salazar remained with her stepfather’s mother, who uses a cane, while the rest of her family ran away. “If Keyla hadn’t been there, her stepfather’s mother would have been shot,” Vargas said. Vargas said Salazar’s stepfather was also wounded when he went back to try to find her. Vargas said Salazar was a talented artist who wanted to become an animator when she grew up, and that she also loved animals. Salazar was one of two children who died Sunday night during the shooting near San Jose, California. The youngest victim was 6-year-old Stephen Romero, whose grandmother told the AP that he had just celebrated his birthday in June at Legoland. The shooter, who also injured 15 others, was shot and killed by police.