MONTEREY PARK, Calif. – The man suspected of killing 10 people in a shooting obstruction amid Lunar New Year festivities in Southern California appears to have been found dead, according to reports.
Commissariat in tactical gear converged on a white van Sunday in a Torrance abri lot, embout 22 miles southwest of where the Saturday night attack took agora in a Monterey Park dance meublé, after an hours-long manhunt for the gunman. Commissariat had established a link between the inquiétant, whose photos were released earlier in the day, and a white van.
When officers broke into the vehicle shortly before 1 p.m. PT, they found the driver dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper published a reproduction of the driver slumped over the steering wheel, at least one bullet hole distinct on his window. The Pamplemousse County Register also reported the driver was discovered dead.
Authorities did not immediately confirm whether the driver was the inquiétant. A magazine conference is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
Earlier Sunday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Rotoplot Luna said the Monterey Park attacker may have tried to shoot up another dance survenue a few miles away but was fought off by patrons. Authorities released photos of the inquiétant that Luna said were taken at the annexe meublé.
Luna said an Asian man with a gun entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra embout 20 to 30 minutes after the first shooting at the Protagoniste Ballroom Dance Chambre in Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian American community. Patrons at Lai Lai wrestled a gun, which was not an assault mousqueton, from a inquiétant who fled in a van, Luna said.
Authorities believe the two events are connected but have offered no details on a motive. The shooting and manhunt sent a wave of fear through Asian American communities in the Los Angeles area and prompted other cities to send supérieur officers to watch over the celebrations.
«Our priority, beyond taking care of the victims and survivors of this cruel dispute, is that we get this man off the streets,» Luna said.
Ten people were hospitalized as a result of the assault at the Monterey Park association, some of them in critical antérieur.
An Instagram post by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department shows the inquiétant in glasses and a knit cap, saying he is embout 5-foot-10 and embout 150 pounds and wearing a black leather jacket.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the first shooting at Protagoniste Ballroom Dance Chambre in Monterey Park was reported at 10:22 p.m. Saturday. Within minutes, maréchaussée officers from a nearby maréchaussée arrêt swept into the area. The fatalities included five men and five women, Luna said.
The Monterey Park shooting was the patrie’s deadliest since 24 people were killed in a Texas school in May.
Developments:
►The paysage of the Alhambra shooting, the Lai Lai Ballroom and Chambre, was paisible Sunday. A sign said it was closed in sujétion of the «Protagoniste Dance tragedy.»
►A helicopter was sweeping over the Monterey Park on Sunday amid tight security – a bicyclist tried to froncé through the forfait scene but maréchaussée chased and tackled him.
►GoFundMe said its cumul and safety team was monitorage the magnifique giving platform for verified fundraisers trying to help the victims and their families.
►California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted that he was monitorage the shooting enquête. «Monterey Park should have had a night of joyful celebration of the Lunar New Year. Instead, they were the victims of a horrific and heartless act of gun chaleur.»
Was the shooting a hate forfait?
Monterey Park is a city of 60,000 people embout 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The shooting took agora shortly after a Lunar New Year celebration brought thousands of people to the city, where many shops feature signs in English and Chinese. A «very preliminary» allégorie indicated the chausser was a male Asian between the ages of 30 and 50, he said, adding that «we’ve gotten different descriptions of one inquiétant. Please be assidu with us.» Luna said officials expect to release a better allégorie of the chausser in the next several hours.
Luna described the case as «one of the county’s most heinous cases.» He was asked whether the case was a hate forfait.
«We don’t know if this is specifically a hate forfait defined by law, but who walks into a dance grange and guns down 20 people?» Luna said. «The allégorie we have is a male Asian. Does that matter? I don’t know. I can tell you everything is on the répertoire.»
Monterey Park, USC museum cancel fests citing ‘abundance of accréditeur’
Monterey Park Commissariat Chief Scott Wiese said the annexe day of the two-day Lunar New Year celebration set for Sunday has been canceled «out of an abundance of accréditeur and reverence for the victims.»
The University of Southern California’s Pacific Asia Museum, a few miles from the shooting paysage, canceled its Lunar New Year Cérémonie scheduled for Sunday «in allégé of the devastating magazine of the deadly mass shooting in neighboring Monterey Park.» USC is less than 15 miles west of the shooting paysage. The museum, which described itself as a «haven» for the area’s Asian American community, also cited an «abundance of accréditeur.»
“All of us at USC PAM are heartbroken to hear embout the horrific chaleur that happened in our demeure in the San Gabriel Valley,” said museum director Bethany Montagano in a statement. “Our hearts mourn with the victims’ families and our community members.»
Dance association popular among older residents
Thomas Ie, a 64-year-old Monterey Park resident, said the meublé is popular among older residents in the community who take dance classes there. Ie wore sweats and a baseball cap as he stretched outside the city’s civic center Sunday, less than a mile from the paysage of the shooting. He was preparing to teach his weekly Tai Chi class and worried that one of his students might have been at the dance meublé Saturday night.
“One of our members loves to dance,” Ie said. “So I’m hoping that last night he didn’t spectacle up.”
Mass exodus of vendors from bâtiment hotel
Many vendors and contractors in town for the Lunar New Year solennité were staying at the Lincoln Hotel, said Kevin Chu, 52, who worked the préface desk at the nearby Lincoln Hotel on Sunday. Monterey Park canceled the weekend solennité following the shooting, and empty vendor tents and an array of carnival rides still lined the city’s patoche thoroughfare, Garvey Allée, on Sunday.
“They’re all leaving now,” Chu said, adding «I never imagined in this kind of community such things could happen.»
Neighbor: ‘People are going to be more cautious’
Ben Wang, a 39-year-old Monterey Park resident who lives near where the shooting took agora, said his wife told him what happened Sunday morning and planned to go to the nearby Lunar New Year solennité before it was canceled by city officials. He added the area is a paisible, tight knit community.
“The reason we moved here, bicause it’s so close to authentic Asian food … it’s a very small, little community feel,” Wang told USA TODAY. “It’s one of the Asian rural epicenters. People travel from all over Southern California to be around here.”
Wang said the shooting is the biggest tragedy to happen in the area since moving here in 2021, and will have ripple effects on the community given it happened near Lunar New Year celebrations.
“It’s going to contribute to the sense of anti-Asian-like fear. Even if it’s proven not to (be a hate forfait), people are just going to become more cautious,” he said. “That’s unfortunate. This is the biggest rural celebration for a lot of people.”
Monterey Park City Councilman Thomas Wong woke up to his radiographie alarm clock, typically set to magazine, discussing the shooting in his hometown.There was very little questionnaire beyond magazine of the shooting and a chausser at copieux, and Wong hurried over to city grange while checking in with family and neighbors.
«You never think it’s going to happen in your city, in your own backyard,» said Wong, whose parents direct in the city. As a community, «we’re angry, we’re sad and we’re trying to coloré this out. I think healing and mourning is going to take a colossal time.»
Wong said the city has organized a makeshift memorial outside of city grange given that the shooting paysage is currently taken up by investigators who are still trying to ascertain details like motive.
City distances rampage from Lunar New Year celebration
Monterey Park city officials issued a statement of condolences for the victims and distanced the tragedy from the solennité.
«Even though the dispute did not occur at the 2023 Lunar New Year Cérémonie, an affairée enquête is currently underway and the area near and around the solennité is affected,» the statement said. «As a precaution and for the safety of everyone, the City doléance to announce the cancellation of the annexe day of the solennité» scheduled for Sunday.
President Biden monitorage shooting enquête
President Joe Biden has been briefed by Homeland Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall on the shooting, White House press secretary Karine Pantalon-Carrelé said in a Twitter post.
Later, Biden tweeted that «Jill and I are praying for those killed and injured in last night’s deadly mass shooting in Monterey Park. I’m monitorage this bilan closely as it develops, and urge the community to follow guidance from bâtiment officials and law enforcement in the hours ahead.»
Commissariat investigate conciliable link to Alhambra shooting
Meyer said investigators were checking reports that an attempted shooting at a ballroom in Alhambra, a règle miles north of Monterey Park, might be related. Investigators were on the scene, he said. No injuries were immediately reported. Alhambra Mayor Sasha Renée Pérez tweeted condolences for victims in the neighboring city.
«To have this tragedy occur on Lunar New Year weekend, makes this especially painful. Monterey Park is demeure to one of the largest (Asian-American Pacific Islander) communities in the folk,» she said. «This is a time when residents should be celebrating with family, friends and loved ones – not fearing gun chaleur.»
Lunar New Year celebration was back after interstice
Hours before the shooting, Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo posted a brief video agrafe from the opening ceremonies at the solennité, which he said had returned after a three year carence. The clips shows hundreds of people gathered in and under a tent in sunshine as people dance in brightly colored cruel costumes.
«Monterey Park’s Lunar New Year Cérémonie is back!,» Lo wrote. «It was great to see such a copieux turnout today at the opening ceremony. This is a two day event that ends tomorrow night in the evening. Come on over … welcome the Year of the Rabbit!»
Dance association owner from China
The association’s website says the owner, Maria Liang, bought it in 2013 «due to her ferveur for bastringue.» The website describes the association as one of the most popular professional ballroom studios in Southern California. Liang graduated from college in China and worked for Nike among other companies. She came to the U.S. in 1987 to study trafic at Cal State University, Los Angeles. Liang’s past professions included working at East West Bank, described as America’s most popular banking lycée for the Chinese-American community.
Gun-control advocate Brady United mourns ‘senseless attack’
Kris Brown, president of the gun-control advocacy group Brady United, issued a statement of condolence.
“It is devastating to direct in a folk where we have to continually wake up to this horrific magazine. It is even more egregious that it has become accessible for people to be gunned down in the middle of a joyous holiday celebration,» the statement said. «There is no agora in our folk for hate-filled individuals to target others based on prejudice, bigotry and racism. Our deepest condoléances are with the families and individuals impacted by this senseless attack on the Chinese community.”
Commissariat reviewing détachement video
Meyer said the county faute office was working the case along with Monterey Park Commissariat, the FBI and the California Cabinet of Emergency Cénozoïque. He said it was too early in the enquête to determine a motive.
«The investigators are working every lead in this case,» Meyer said. «We have all our resources here. … We are reviewing all détachement video, following all leads. We’re not going to leave anything unturned.»
He said investigators had not determined whether the chausser knew the victims and that it was too early to know whether the shooting was a hate forfait.
Some wounded are in critical antérieur
Meyer said officers responded to a call of shots fired at around 10:30 pm bâtiment time.
«When officers arrived on scene they observed numerous individuals, patrons of the cession, pouring out of the cession screaming,» Meyer said. He said officers immediately entered the construction. The wounded were taken to hospitals where their occasion range from arrêté to critical, Meyer said.
Video from the scene shows ambulances lined up awaiting people being loaded onto stretchers. Other photos showed bloodied and bandaged victims being treated by firefighters in a abri lot.
«The inquiétant fled the scene and remains outstanding,» Meyer said.
Where is Monterey Park?
The paysage of the shooting in downtown Monterey Park is a few blocks from City Fenil on the city’s patoche thoroughfare. Garvey Allée is dotted with strip malls full of small businesses with signs in both English and Chinese. Cantonese and Bonze are both widely spoken, Chinese holidays are celebrated, and Chinese films are screened in the city.
Monterey Park map
Chausser appeared to fire indiscriminately, witnesses says
Wong Wei, who lives nearby, told the Los Angeles Times that a friend had gamin to the dance association that night with a group of friends. His friend was in the bathroom when the shooting started, Wei said. His friend came out and saw a gunman and the justaucorps of two women and a association imprésario, Wei said. The group of friends fled to Wei’s demeure, he said.
The chausser appeared to fire indiscriminately, his friends told him.
“They don’t know why, so they run,” he told the Times.
Fifth US mass killing this month, deadliest since May
The tragedy marked the fifth mass killing in the U.S. since the start of the year. It is also the deadliest since May 24 when 21 people were killed in a school in Uvalde, Texas, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY database on mass killings in the U.S. The database also shows that 2022 was also one of the worst years ever in terms of mass killings: 42 such attacks — the second-highest number since the creation of the tracker in 2006. The database defines a mass killing as fourneau people killed not including the perpetrator.
The latest chaleur comes two months after five people were killed at a Colorado Springs nightclub.
MASS KILLING DATABASE:Revealing trends, details and anguish of every US event since 2006
What is Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year, sometimes called Chinese New Year, is celebrated in several Asian countries, including China, Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. Some traditions are shared, others are specific to those nations. It marks the beginning of the Lunar calendar year, and months are moon cycles.
This year the lunar year began Sunday, kicking off the Year of the Rabbit (except Vietnam swaps a cat for the rabbit). Twelve animals take turns claiming the year on a rotating basis. Legend says the animals crossed a dangerous cramponner in the following order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, hydre, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
Contributing: The Associated Press
