10-year-old girl's quick action saved 3-year-old during Gilroy Garlic Festival mass shooting

A 10-year-old girl is being hailed a hero for her quick thinking that may have saved a toddler from the gunman who opened fire at the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival in California on Sunday.

Troy Towner told the Associated Press his sister, Wendy Towner, and her husband, Francisco, were working at a booth for Wendy's business "The Honey Ladies" when they witnessed a man, later identified as 19-year-old Santino Legan, enter the fairgrounds carrying a gun.

Wendy allegedly called out to the gunman, "No, you can't do that!" before she was shot in the leg. Her husband was also shot three times while the pair's 3-year-old son stood helplessly by.

That's when a 10-year-old girl, identified as the niece of Candice Marquez, who works with Wendy Towner, spotted the toddler and quickly dragged him under a nearby table.

The gunman then allegedly approached Wendy and her husband and asked, "Are you alright?" The couple remained motionless until he "turned and continued on to the next group of people," according to the victim's brother.

"She was brave," Marquez said of her niece's heroism.

Towner said his sister underwent surgery and will suffer long-term nerve and muscle damage in her leg, while her husband sustained more severe damage to his femoral artery and will require more surgeries.

A GoFundMe to cover the family's medical bills has raised nearly $68,000 of its $100,000 goal.

The Towners were two of 15 people shot at the festival, three of whom died, including 6-year-old Stephen Romero, 13-year-old Keyla Salazar and 25-year-old Trevor Irby.

Keyla reportedly died in an act of bravery after she stayed behind to assist a relative who used a cane while others began to flee the gunfire.

"I have no words to describe this pain I'm feeling," the girl's aunt, Katiuska Vargas, wrote on Facebook Monday. "You were too young to be taken from us. We are all devastated and broken."