US

Monterey Park shooting: 10 people killed after Lunar New Year event near Los Angeles

At least 10 other people were injured in the incident as police search for suspect described preliminarily by police as an ‘Asian male’

Ten people have died and at least 10 others been wounded in a mass shooting in a largely Asian city in southern California, law enforcement say. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images
Ten people have died and at least 10 others been wounded in a mass shooting in a largely Asian city in southern California, law enforcement say. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images
Sun Jan 22 2023 - 12:18

A gunman killed 10 people and wounded 10 others at a ballroom dance club in California following a Lunar New Year celebration, setting off a manhunt for the suspect in the latest mass shooting to hit the United States.

Captain Andrew Meyer, of the Los Angeles sheriff’s department, said the wounded had been taken to hospitals and that their conditions ranged from stable to critical. He said the 10 people had died at the scene in Monterey Park, a city east of Los Angeles. Police later said five of the victims were female and five male.

It is the deadliest mass shooting in the US since an 18-year-old gunman shot 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Ulvade, Texas, last August.

Capt Meyer said people had been “pouring out of the location screaming” when officers arrived on the scene at around 10.30pm local time on Saturday – 6.30am on Sunday in Ireland.

READ MORE

He said officers had gone into the ballroom as firefighters treated the wounded.

The suspect in the shooting has been described by authorities as a “male Asian” aged 30-50, according to Los Angeles County sheriff Robert Luna. Police said they knew the suspect’s name but would not release it for operational reasons.

Police also confirmed that they are exploring a possible link with another incident in the nearby city of Alhambra. “We believe that there may be an incident that may be related…where a male Asian suspect walked into a dance hall…with a firearm and some individuals wrestled the firearm away from him. That individual took off… Some witnesses in that area are describing a white cargo van, we don’t know if…it’s connected,” said Sheriff Luna.

Cap Meyer said it was too early in the investigation to have established a motive for the shooting.

At around 11:45am local time, police surrounded a white van in the city of Torrance, in Los Angeles County’s South Bay region, and local media reported that shots were fired. As a standoff ensued, police told local media they were not sure whether the person involved in the Torrance incident was the same as the suspect sought for the Monterey Park shooting.

The Lunar New Year celebration had attracted thousands. Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people with a large Asian population about 10 miles (16km) from Los Angeles city centre.

The majority of its residents are Asian immigrants or their descendants, most of them Chinese.

Captain Andrew Meyer, of the Los Angeles sheriff’s department, said the wounded had been taken to hospitals and that their conditions ranged from stable to critical. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP
Captain Andrew Meyer, of the Los Angeles sheriff’s department, said the wounded had been taken to hospitals and that their conditions ranged from stable to critical. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP

The dance studio in Monterey Park is a few streets from the city hall on its main thoroughfare, Garvey Avenue, which is full of small businesses whose signs are in both English and Chinese. Cantonese and Mandarin are both widely spoken, Chinese holidays are celebrated, and Chinese films are screened in the city.

The incident marks the fifth mass shooting in the US this month and the deadliest since 21 people were killed in a school in Uvalde, Texas, according to the Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings in the US. The latest violence comes two months after five people were killed at a Colorado Springs nightclub.

Seung Won Choi, who owns the Clam House seafood barbecue restaurant across the street from where the shooting happened, told the Los Angeles Times that three people had rushed into his business and told him to lock the door.

The people also told Mr Choi that there was a gunman with a weapon who had multiple rounds of ammunition on him.

The shooting occurred close to where thousands of people had attended a Lunar New Year celebration. Saturday was the start of the two-day festival, which is one of the largest Lunar New Year events in southern California.

Videos posted on social media showed people being loaded on to stretchers and placed into ambulances. Other photos showed bloodied and bandaged victims being treated by Monterey Park firefighters in a car park. – Associated Press