The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that at least 10 people were killed and at least 10 others were hurt in a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, late Saturday night.
“Investigators are following up on every lead in this case,” Capt. Andrew Meyer of the department’s homicide division said at a news conference early on Sunday. He also said that they were looking at CCTV footage from a ballroom dance club near the scene.
“We have 10 dead at the scene,” he said, adding that he thought at least 10 people had been taken to the hospital with “critical to stable injuries.”
Meyer said that when police arrived at the scene around 10:30 p.m. local time, people were “running out of the place screaming” (1:30 a.m. ET). He said that after that, the officers went into the dance ballroom while the firefighters took care of the injured.
In a video that was shared on social media, you could see a lot of police and fire units in the area. Some showed people being helped into ambulances.
source: scmp
The shooter is a man. Bob Boese of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Meyer said at the news conference that the suspect ran away from the scene and hasn’t been found yet. He said that more information about the suspect would be given when it was ready.
“It’s too early in the investigation to know if the suspect knew any of the victims,” he said. He also said it was too early to know what the motive was.
The shooting happened after thousands of people came together for a Lunar New Year Festival in a small city with a large Asian population about 10 miles east of Los Angeles.
The city’s website says that the two-day event has “food booths with different kinds of tasty items, amusement rides, and lots of live entertainment.” Meyer said that police “will look at every angle to see if it was a hate crime or not.” He also said that it was too early in the investigation to know if the incident was racially motivated.
Chief Scott Wiese of the Monterey Park Police Department told a news conference that the event was canceled on Sunday out of respect for the victims.
In Marvel’s first Asian superhero movie, Simu Liu plays the warrior Shang-Chi. He tweeted that he was “shocked and saddened” by the event.
“It’s where Asian-American parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, aunts, and uncles live with their families. “They were all looking forward to celebrating the New Year this weekend,” he said.
Two months ago, five people were shot and killed in a Colorado Springs nightclub.
Linda Takahashi wrote from Los Angeles, Leila Sackur wrote from London, and Cristian Santana wrote from New York.
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