By Jonathan Allen
(Reuters) – A person fatally shot 10 individuals at a ballroom dance venue the place individuals have been celebrating the Chinese language Lunar New Yr late on Saturday in a metropolis on the japanese fringe of Los Angeles, and he was nonetheless at giant after fleeing the scene, police mentioned.
One other 10 individuals have been taken to native hospitals to be handled for accidents, and no less than one was in important situation, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division mentioned early on Sunday morning, about 5 hours after the assault in Monterey Park.
When native police first arrived, individuals have been “pouring out of the placement screaming,” division captain Andrew Meyer advised reporters in a information briefing on the scene.
There was no fast details about a motive for the capturing or an outline of the suspect or sort of gun used.
The capturing passed off after 10 p.m. PST (0600 GMT on Sunday) across the location of a Chinese language Lunar New Yr celebration the place many downtown streets are closed for festivities that draw hundreds of individuals from throughout Southern California. Police mentioned the festivities deliberate for Sunday have been now cancelled.
Monterey Park is a metropolis of about 60,000 individuals round 7 miles (11 km) from downtown Los Angeles. About two-thirds of its residents are Asian, based on U.S. Census information, and the town is understood for its many Chinese language eating places and groceries. The sheriff’s division mentioned it didn’t know whether or not the assault was racially motivated.
Footage posted on social media confirmed injured individuals on stretchers being taken to ambulances by emergency workers. Across the scene of the capturing police guarded cordoned-off streets, the video confirmed.
Seung Received Choi, who owns a seafood barbecue restaurant close to the positioning of the assault, advised the Los Angeles Instances that three individuals rushed into his restaurant and advised him to lock the door as a result of a person was unloading a number of rounds of ammunition on the dance membership throughout the road.
Mass shootings are recurrent in america, and the assault in Monterey Park was the deadliest since Might 2022, when a gunman killed 19 college students and two academics at a college in Uvalde, Texas. The deadliest capturing in California historical past was in 1984 when a gunman killed 21 individuals at a McDonald’s (NYSE:) restaurant in San Ysidro, close to San Diego.
