Armed attack leaves ten dead in California during Lunar New Year celebration

The gunman opened fire at a dance studio in Monterey Park, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, as the local community celebrated Chinese Lunar New Year.

With around 61.000 inhabitants of Asian origin, this location is around 13 km east of downtown Los Angeles.

Witnesses said he fired indiscriminately with a semi-automatic weapon.

Captain Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told reporters that deputies responded to emergency calls around 22:20 p.m. Saturday and when they arrived, they found people leaving the dance club.

Upon entering the scene, ten people were declared dead, and at least ten were injured and taken to area hospitals. His condition varies from stable to critical.

“The suspect fled the scene and remains at large,” Meyer said. Police did not release a description of the suspect or the type of weapon used.

Specialized investigators from that department are “assisting the Monterey Park Police in investigating shooting deaths,” according to a statement released earlier.

Point-blank shots

Wong Wei, a resident of the city, told the Los Angeles Times that a friend of his went to the event and was in the bathroom when the shots rang out. Upon leaving, he saw a man with a long gun, who was shooting at point blank range. He also saw three bodies: two women and a person he identified as the studio owner.

The newspaper reported that Seung Won Choi, owner of a seafood restaurant near the crime scene, said three people ran into his restaurant and told him to lock the door.

The three reported that there was a man with a semi-automatic weapon, with several rounds of ammunition, and that he reloaded each time he ran out, Choi added, in an interview with the newspaper.

According to the Los Angeles Times, tens of thousands of people gathered early on that date for the two-day Chinese New Year festivities.

Meyer said detectives don't yet know if the suspect knew his victims, or if it was an attack not targeted at anyone in particular.

“We will look at all angles,” he said, adding that officers are reviewing surveillance camera footage.

“It is too early in the investigation to know whether this incident was a hate crime or not,” he stressed.

Investigators are also looking into a possible link to an attempted armed attack at a similar location in nearby Alhambra, Meyers said.

Gun violence is a major problem in the United States, where, according to the Gun Violence Archive website, there were 647 gun attacks last year, defined as incidents involving four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter.

More than 44.000 people died in the country from gunshot wounds in 2022, and more than half of them by suicide.

The United States has more guns than people: one in three adults owns at least one gun, and nearly one in two adults lives in a home with a gun.

(Source: AFP)

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If you scroll through social media, you will see a series of posts about Lunar New Year🌙. For much of the world, especially in East and Southeast Asia, 2023 is now arriving, or rather, the year 4721! The New Year takes place this Sunday (22), and the celebrations can last for several weeks: there are family banquets, public parties with lots of fireworks and dragons that dance through the streets to the sound of traditional music from each culture (Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Korean…). Come the Curto Explain. 🐉