On behalf of the City of Morgan Hill and the Morgan Hill City Council, we would like to express our sincere sympathy and condolences to all involved with and impacted by the tragic event that occurred at the Morgan Hill Ford Store June 25. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We are grateful for all of the first responders and our partner agencies who quickly, and without hesitation, responded and assisted us last night.
We deeply appreciate our Morgan Hill Police Department dispatchers and officers who answered numerous, frantic calls from witnesses of the shooting, gathering pertinent information and relaying it to the responding officers, allowing them to arrive on scene within four minutes of the initial call. Our officers stood tall and ran toward danger through a parking lot where evil could have been hidden behind every car or around any corner. This is representative of the bravery shown every day by our team and the hundreds of thousands of peace officers throughout the nation.
We also recognize that our community is grieving. What occurred last night is not typical for our community. We are not used to dealing with this type of horrific tragedy. But as tragic as this event was, we want to assure you that this was an isolated event and that Morgan Hill continues to be one of the safest cities in the Santa Clara County. Our community is resilient, close-knit and involved. This will be key in the healing for all of us.
The Morgan Hill Ford Store has established a GoFundMe page for the families of the victims at https://www.gofundme.com/f/soutoandlightmemorialpage.
Details of the tragic event are as follows:
At 6:03pm June 25, the Morgan Hill Police Department received multiple reports of an active shooter at the Morgan Hill Ford Store. Officers were dispatched at 6:04pm and arrived on scene at 6:07pm.
The first team of officers was directed to a person in the parking lot who was later determined to be the suspect, Steven Leet of San Jose. The second team was directed to the two victims, Brian Light and Xavier Souto, inside the business. Fire personnel pronounced the victims and suspect deceased on scene.
Morgan Hill officers and Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies searched the building and grounds for additional victims and suspects and found none. Morgan Hill crime scene investigators worked in partnership with the County Crime Lab and Sheriff’s Office to collect evidence and document the scene. This thorough investigation lasted into the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 26.
Detectives and officers from the Gilroy/Morgan Hill Regional SWAT Team served a search warrant on the suspect’s house in San Jose early Wednesday morning and found no other evidence related to motive or pre-planning. It appears that this was a spontaneous action on the part of the suspect which resulted in the tragic loss of life for two men and the loss of fathers for two families.
This was a tragic event for all involved and for the entire Morgan Hill community. We want to share that help is available for those in crisis at (800) 273-8255 or by texting CONNECT to 741741.
Christina Turner is Morgan Hill city manager. She sent this message as an email blast to Morgan Hill residents on June 26.
