Martin Garcia was cooking dinner Friday night when two terrified girls rang the doorbell. Confused but wanting to help, he let them in. And the people behind them. And the ones behind them. Before long, a steady stream of about 50 people were sheltering at the family’s house near Westfield Valley Fair.
He had no idea there just had been a shooting that injured three people. “My next thought was that they needed help,” he said. “I just let them in and then, oh my God, look at all these people running. I didn’t know when it would stop.”
Martin Garcia, left, takes a selfie with some of the people who sheltered at his family’s San Jose home following a shooting at Westfield Valley Fair on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (Courtesy Martin Garcia)
He called his wife, Irene, who was out running errands with their two teenage sons, and told her to get home right away. Irene Garcia said when she walked in it was like a scene out of a movie. “Their faces looked like they had seen a ghost,” she said. “They weren’t standing, they weren’t sitting. Some were crouched like they were in a flight or fight mode. They were ducking.”
Over the next five hours, the family kept people as calm as they could as they waited for rides since they couldn’t get their cars out of the mall garage. They put on Christmas music and handed out Oreo cookies, tangerines and milk. They turned off the news and put on “KPop Demon Hunters” for the kids to watch. After 10 p.m., with about 15 people still in the house, they ordered pizza.
“We had a gamut of diverse people in the house. Every culture you could think of was here,” Irene Garcia said, adding that the house became a reunification spot for families. One father cried tears of gratitude when he picked up his daughter, she said, thanking the family for giving her shelter.
“I would hope somebody would do that for my kids,” Irene Garcia said. Since Friday night, they’ve stayed in touch with many of the people who spent those harrowing hours in their house and we are planning to get together with some during the holidays. “We have a few families that have become friends,” she said.
The family has been sharing its story in hopes of providing an antidote to violent news and has been very surprised by how much people have been interested, with even national TV programs like “Inside Edition” calling for interviews. Martin Garcia is just glad he opened the door when he did.
“God put us in the right place at the right time,” he said.
HISTORIC SCENE: An elaborate Portuguese presépio — a Nativity village — that dates from the 1750s will be on display this weekend at the Franck Mansion in Santa Clara, one of the homes on this year’s Santa Clara Historic House tour. Owner Louis Faria tells me it was passed down to him by his grandfather, who would set up the elaborate display in San Leandro back in the 1920s and ’30s. Packed away for almost 90 years, it includes handmade figures showing everyday life with a band, fishermen, priests, nuns, shepherds, animals and even men playing cards.
It should be quite a draw for the Dec. 5-6 tours of four private homes and the Santa Clara Fire Museum, which is sponsored by the Historic Preservation Society of Santa Clara with the help of the Old Quad Residents’ Association. The tours run 6-10 p.m. Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. As a bonus, the Harris-Lass museum will be open Sunday from noon to 2 p.m., with Santa Claus himself in attendance.
Get tickets and more information on the tours at sc-hometour.com.
YOU’RE INVITED: Scott’s Social Club, one of the groups that has sprung up following the Silicon Valley Capital Club’s abrupt demise last year, is hosting a holiday mixer and toy drive Dec. 3 at the Rotary Summit Center, on the seventh floor of the parking garage at 88 S. Fourth Street in downtown San Jose.
The 6 p.m. networking event is also the inaugural Silicon Valley Non-Profit Showcase, highlighting some of the groups making a difference here in the valley, including Meriwest Community Foundation, Latinas Contra Cancer, City Lights Theater Company, the Morgan Austism Center, the Valdes Math Foundation, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action and Q Corner.
The festivities include an ugly holiday sweater contest, DJ music, and cocktails and appetizers from Scott’s Seafood San Jose. You can register for free at bit.ly/Dec3HolidayMixer, but a donation of a new, unwrapped toy is requested.