- Writing
- BBC News World
image source, Getty Images
Police stand guard in the area of the shooting.
At least diez people died in a shooting in a commercial premises in the Californian city of Monterey Park, reported the police.
The incident occurred around 10:20 p.m. local time on Saturday.
The police also indicated that at least ten more people were taken to hospitals, some in critical condition.
About the fatal victims, it is only known that they are five men and five women.
The perpetrator of the attack, a man, has not been captured. A Los Angeles County sheriff, in what he said was a “very preliminary description,” indicated the suspect was an Asian man between the ages of 30 and 50.
Thousands of people had gathered in the city for the Lunar New Year festival of Monterey Park, a celebration widely spread in Asia of which the Chinese New Year is a part.
image source, Getty Images
Police at the scene of a shooting on January 22, 2023 in Monterey Park, California.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department dI wroteor the fact as “a mass shooting”.
Videos on social media show a large police presence in the city, which is located about 13 km east of Los Angeles.
A witness told the Los Angeles Times that three people ran into his restaurant and told him to lock the door because there was a man with a machine gun semiautomatic In the area.
Capt. Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said authorities were also aware of another incident in the neighboring city of Alhambra, where a suspected gunman was shot down and disarmed and there were no injuries. Meyer said they were studying whether there was a connection to both cases.
image source, EPA
The authorities still do not know the motivation of the assailant, who is still on the run.
US President Joe Biden has ordered the FBI to provide “full support” to local authorities, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted.
For her part, Judy Chu, who was mayor of Monterey Park and is the first Chinese American woman to reach Congress, released a message on her Twitter account: “My heart is broken for the victims, their families and the people of my hometown, Monterey Park, which was affected by the mass shooting.”
It is still unknown if the suspect knew his victims or if they were targeting a particular group, just as he does not know the motivation.
Authorities said they are reviewing surveillance footage and will review “every angle.”
“It’s too early in the investigation to know if this incident was a hate crime or not.”Meyer told reporters.
In 2021 alone, more than 7,000 hate crimes were reported in the United States, according to the country’s Department of Justice. Two thirds of them were related to race.
The annual Lunar New Year festival is a weekend event that has previously attracted up to 100,000 visitors. The festivities on Saturday night were scheduled to end at 9:00 p.m. local time.
In Monterey Park, which has a population of about 60,000 people, more than 65% of the wovenso many are asian Americans and 27% Hispanic or Latino, according to government data.
The city was the first in the continental United States to attract a large majority of residents with Asian descent.
Immigrant communities from Taiwan, mainland China, Japan, and Vietnam settled there.
image source, Getty Images
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