A Monterey Park shooting left at least 10 people killed near 122 Garvey Ave amid a Lunar New Year celebration, Los Angeles County police said.
A Monterey Park shooting left at least 10 people killed near 122 Garvey Ave amid a Lunar New Year celebration, Los Angeles County police said.Ten people were killed and at least 10 others were wounded in a mass shooting at a dance studio in Monterey Park, police said.
During a press conference Sunday morning, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna described the suspect as an Asian male 30 to 50 years old, based on preliminary information. A more detailed description was not available.WATCH: Police provide update after deadly Monterey Park shootingDuring the search Sunday, a SWAT team surrounded a white cargo van believed to be connected to the shooting suspect. AIR7 HD with our sister station, KABC, was over the scene as two SWAT vehicles boxed in the vehicle in a Torrance parking lot. It's unknown if the suspect is in the van. "We're going to use every resource available to us because we need to get this person off the street," Luna said."We don't know that this was a hate crime as described by law," Luna said. "Who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?" Tony Lai, 35, of Monterey Park was stunned when he came out for his early morning walk to learn that the noises he heard in the night were gunshots. "I thought maybe it was fireworks. I thought maybe it had something to do with Lunar New Year," he said. "And we don't even get a lot of fireworks here. It's weird to see this. It's really safe here. We're right in the middle of the city, but it's really safe."Authorities said the shooting happened just after 10 p.m. Saturday. The suspect entered a ballroom dance facility on West Garvey Avenue and opened fire. A Lunar New Year celebration was underway nearby, but the shooting did not happen at the festival, authorities said. When deputies arrived, people were running out of the dance hall, officials said during a news conference. "We're serious about catching this suspect and bringing him to justice," Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese said. The motive is not yet known, and it was unclear if the suspect knew the victims. The injured victims were rushed to area hospitals and were in various conditions from stable to critical. Police in the nearby city of Alhambra were investigating an incident, which also occurred at a dance studio, that might be connected to the shooting, Luna said. In the Alhambra incident, which occurred 17 minutes after the Monterey Park shooting, an Asian man entered the dance studio with a gun, and several people there wrestled the weapon away from him before he fled the scene. Luna said a white cargo van witnesses spotted at the Alhambra incident is a "vehicle of interest" in the investigation. The FBI has responded to assist. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted that President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting. "Jill and I are praying for those killed and injured in last night's deadly mass shooting in Monterey Park. I'm monitoring this situation closely as it develops, and urge the community to follow guidance from local officials and law enforcement in the hours ahead," Biden said in a statement. In early alerts sent to Washington, investigators said "they had no idea who the suspect was," Pierre Thomas, ABC News' chief justice correspondent, said on ABC's "This Week." U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has also been briefed on the shooting, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.Monterey Park is a small community of approximately 61,000 people, and it's a predominantly Asian community. The city was hosting the Monterey Park Lunar New Year Festival this weekend, marking the beginning of the Chinese lunar calendar. The annual two-day street festival is widely attended, with previous celebrations drawing as many as 100,000 daily visitors, according to the city. Saturday's events were scheduled to finish at 9 p.m. The festival has been canceled for Sunday. Anyone with information is urged to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at 890-5500. If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call Crime Stoppers by dialing 222-TIPS . The tragedy marked not just the fifth mass killing in the U.S. since the start of the year but 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 nation's worst years in terms of mass killings, with 42 such attacks - the second-highest number since the creation of the tracker in 2006. The database defines a mass killing as four people killed not including the perpetrator.ABC News contributed to this report.Copyright © 2023 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
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