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Gilroy community still coping after Garlic Festival shooting

It's been a week since a gunman opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, killing three people. Locals believe their once quiet town will never quite be the same.

GILROY, Calif. — The FBI announced on Tuesday they finished processing the crime scene and collecting evidence at Christmas Hill Park where a gunman opened fire on families at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Investigators turned the park back over to the city, and while it is still closed to the public, vendors were allowed back in one by one to gather their belongings left behind during the shooting.

RELATED: FBI found 'target list' by Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter; open domestic terrorism case

Many locals stopping by the park said things still feel completely surreal even one week after the shooting.

"People are scared, people are just on edge now because you don't know when it's going to happen again," said Gilroy resident Ashley Fumagalli.

Fumagalli took her three kids to bring flowers to the Gilroy Garlic Festival scene.

"My kids are very loving children and they're affected by it just as much. We were grocery shopping and they asked if we could come put some flowers [at the scene]," Fumagalli said.

There have already been two more mass shootings since Gilroy; one in El Paso and one in Dayton. The number of dead stands at 31.

"It's unbelievable. It's sad. It's heartbreaking. You don't even feel safe going to the grocery store and you keep your kids a little tighter," she said.

"Just not really comfortable, really with what's going on still," said Henry Montoya.

RELATED: Funeral instead of 14th birthday for teen killed at festival

Montoya grew up in Gilroy.

"I don't think Gilroy's going to be a little bit the same either," he said.

Other residents said they are still in disbelief that something like this could happen in their own backyards.

"I'm still hurt and I guess a lot of people are, especially when I used to go every day and play some music at the park," said Luis Guzman.

RELATED: Gilroy gunman 'kind of a loner' FBI says

Like Parkland, Aurora, Las Vegas and so many other communities, locals are heartbroken that the quiet city of Gilroy is now forever associated with a mass shooting.

"It's so sad that's what this town has to be remembered for when it was better for the garlic and the garlic ice cream and now it's a mass shooting," Fumagalli said.

The park is still closed to the public. Police said they expect it to reopen sometime in the next couple of days.

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WATCH MORE: 3 mass shootings, 1 week | Gilroy, El Paso & Dayton

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