Ten individuals had been killed and at the very least 10 others had been injured when a gunman opened fire at a ballroom dance studio in Monterey Park on Saturday evening, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department mentioned.
The mass taking pictures, considered one of California’s worst in current reminiscence, occurred in the 100 block of West Garvey Avenue at round 10:22 p.m., sheriff’s Capt. Andrew Meyer advised reporters Sunday morning. The taking pictures occurred on Lunar New Year’s Eve about seven miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
There was scant information on the gunman: male and nonetheless at giant. There is not any identified motive, nor an outline of the shooter. A legislation enforcement supply briefed on the matter mentioned the gunman used a excessive powered assault rifle at shut vary.
“When officers arrived on scene, they observed numerous individuals, patrons … pouring out of the location, screaming. The officers made entry to the location and located additional victims,” Meyer mentioned.
Firefighters pronounced 10 of the victims useless on the scene, Meyer mentioned. At least 10 others had been taken to quite a few native hospitals, and their circumstances vary from steady to vital.
Meyer mentioned investigators don’t know whether or not the victims had been focused. He mentioned it was too early to know whether or not the taking pictures was a hate crime. “We will look at every angle,” he mentioned.
There was no description of the weapon used apart from it was a firearm, Meyer mentioned.
Meyer mentioned he was conscious of some sort of incident in the neighboring suburb of Alhambra, “and we have investigators on scene trying to determine if there’s a connection between these two incidents.”
Law enforcement had been additionally on scene Sunday morning in Alhambra on the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in the 100 block of South Garfield Avenue, about two miles north of the Monterey Park taking pictures. It was not clear if the police exercise at that website was the incident referenced by Meyer.
Seung Won Choi, who owns a seafood barbecue restaurant on Garvey Avenue throughout from the place the taking pictures occurred, mentioned three individuals rushed into his restaurant and advised him to lock the door.
They mentioned there was a person with a semiautomatic gun in the realm. The shooter, they mentioned, had a number of rounds of ammunition, so that after his ammunition ran out he reloaded, Choi mentioned.
Wong Wei, who lives close by, mentioned his pal had gone to the dance membership that evening with a couple of of her pals. His pal was in the toilet when the taking pictures began.
When she got here out, she noticed a gunman and three our bodies — two ladies and one one that was the boss of the membership, Wei mentioned, including that his pal escaped to his dwelling round 11 p.m.
The shooter was carrying an extended gun and appeared to fireside indiscriminately, his pal advised him.
“They don’t know why, so they run,” he mentioned.
The taking pictures occurred close to the location the place tens of 1000’s had gathered Saturday for the beginning of a two-day Lunar New Year pageant, one of many largest vacation occasions in the area.
Earlier in the day, crowds had been having fun with skewers and searching for Chinese meals and jewellery. Saturday’s New Year pageant hours had been scheduled from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
John, 27, who declined to offer his final title, lives close to the taking pictures website. He bought dwelling round 10 p.m. and heard about 4 or 5 gunshots, he mentioned. Then he heard police cruisers and “smashing” down the road. He went downstairs at round 11:20 p.m. to see if the taking pictures occurred on the pageant.
“My first concern was I know they’re having a Lunar New Year celebration,” he mentioned. But he mentioned he noticed that the pageant had already been cleaned up for the day when he arrived. He went to the scene of the taking pictures and noticed one individual being put on a stretcher. Another individual had a bandage on their arm.
Police on the scene of the taking pictures at Monterey Park on Saturday evening.
(Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times)
Video on social media confirmed police and fireplace models swarming an space on Garvey Avenue and treating victims.
Injured individuals had been taken to a number of hospitals.
The violence left many in the realm shocked.
Edwin Chen, a 47-year-old supply dispatcher, rushed over from Woodland Hills to Monterey Park round 12:30 a.m. after listening to the news. Chen mentioned he grew up in the realm, and a few dozen of his family members and pals reside there.
He mentioned he was saddened this occurred simply because the neighborhood was celebrating Lunar New Year.
“This is [supposed to be] a happy time,” he mentioned. “I want to find out as much as possible. It’s still shocking.”
“Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones tonight in our neighboring city, Monterey Park, where a mass shooting just occurred,” Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia, the primary Asian American to carry citywide workplace in L.A., mentioned on Twitter.
Monterey Park, a metropolis of 61,000 in the San Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles, is 65% Asian American, 27% Latino and 6% white, based on census knowledge.
One of the anchor suburbs in the San Gabriel Valley, Monterey Park is a hub of Asian American supermarkets and eating places.
Monterey Park’s two-day Lunar New Year pageant had been scheduled to conclude on Sunday. But the day’s occasions are canceled “out of an abundance of caution and in reverence for the victims,” Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese mentioned.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted that President Biden has been briefed on the Monterey Park taking pictures. The tweet mentioned Biden directed his homeland safety advisor, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, “to make sure that the FBI is providing full support to local authorities, and to update him regularly today as more details are known.”
The mass taking pictures in Monterey Park was one of many worst in fashionable Los Angeles County historical past. One of the final mass shootings of this scale occurred on Christmas Eve in 2008, when a person dressed as Santa Claus entered a house in Covina, armed with 5 handguns. Nine individuals had been killed in that taking pictures rampage, together with the gunman’s former spouse and her dad and mom. The gunman took his life hours later after the shootings.
Other mass shootings in California in current reminiscence embody the bloodbath at a San Ysidro McDonald’s in 1984, the place a gunman killed 21 individuals; and the terrorist assault that resulted in 14 deaths in San Bernardino in 2015.
In 2018, 12 people were killed during a mass taking pictures on the Borderline bar in Thousand Oaks.
Saturday’s taking pictures got here simply 5 days after six individuals — together with a 10-month previous child, his 16-year-old mom, and a grandmother — had been killed in the Central Valley farming neighborhood of Goshen in Tulare County.
Anyone with information on the Monterey Park taking pictures is requested to name the L.A. County Sheriff’s murder detectives at (323) 890-5500. Anonymous suggestions may be made by calling (800) 222-8477.
Times workers author Ruben Vives contributed to this report.
