A mass shooting in Los Angeles late Saturday night on Lunar New Year’s Eve that killed 10 people drew condolences from multiple Bay Area officials and dampened the mood at celebrations on Sunday as law enforcement beefed up security at local events in San Jose and San Francisco.
The shooting — one of California’s worst in recent memory — occurred at a ballroom dance studio in the city of Monterey Park, about seven miles east of downtown. L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said it was too early to tell whether the Lunar New Year celebrations were connected to the shooting and a motive has not yet been established. An additional 10 people are injured.
On Sunday afternoon, authorities breached a white van in the city of Torrance that they believe is connected to the gunman and whose driver was killed by a self-inflicted gunshot. An advisory from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department identified the suspect as an adult Asian man, about 5 foot, 10 inches and weighing 150 pounds. An image showed the man in a black leather jacket, beanie and glasses.
In a statement to the Bay Area News Group, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said he was “devastated” by the shooting.
“The victims and their families are in our thoughts and prayers,” he wrote. “Locally, we’ll continue using a sensible approach to reduce gun harm and get illegal guns off the streets.”
Mahan urged local community members to file a gun violence restraining order against family members who are deemed a threat. Last year, the city became the first in the nation to require gun owners to acquire liability insurance for their firearms.
San Jose police said they are “monitoring” the situation in Los Angeles. “Out of an abundance of caution we will have a presence at various events occurring throughout the city today,” they wrote in a tweet.
At the Vietnamese American Cultural Foundation’s Lunar New Year festival in San Jose, organizers said they never hesitated to continue with the festivities after news broke overnight of the shooting. On Sunday, the event carried on at History Park with singing and artistic performances, while many in attendance wore traditional ao dai attire.
But for many attendees, word of yet another mass shooting — this time, at a celebration meant to mark a time of joy — cast a pall over the day’s festivities.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Binh Nguyen, 36, of San Jose. As a first-generation immigrant who came to the U.S. at the age of 21 from Vietnam, he makes a point to attend the Lunar New Year celebrations every year as a way to reconnect with his culture and the Vietnamese community.
“It’s a chance to think about our past,” he said.
Still, he arrived at this year’s event during the early afternoon Sunday, reasoning that it would be less crowded and he could escape more quickly with his family, should another act of violence happen.
“It broke my heart,” he said. “With the incident last night, I think twice about going out.”
Others lamented the impact that the shooting had across California.
“It’s sad how someone can come in and take away the joy of the community,” said Tham Nguyen, who attended the event with her family.
She said that she makes a point to visit Lunar New Year celebrations across the Bay Area annually because they always offer such a strong sense of community.
“In previous years, you get the joy and the spirit right when you walk in,” she said. “It just takes the spirit away. I can’t imagine what the families are going through.”
Lindsey Nguyen, 21, said the shooting was simply “terrible, adding that “these are people who are out with their families, just trying to celebrate their heritage, their culture.”
Still, she said she didn’t think twice about attending Sunday’s event. She has visited the annual celebration every year for more than a decade, and she said she wouldn’t allow the shooting in Southern California to sway her plans.
She hailed Sunday’s turnout as a sign of the resilience of Asian Americans in the Bay Area. While the motive of the Monterey Park shooter remained unclear Sunday afternoon, many people at Sunday’s event said the incident nevertheless struck a raw chord, given the rates of hate crimes that Asian Americans have faced in recent years.
“It represents how strong our community is,” Nguyen said about Sunday’s turnout. “No matter what challenges come out way, we’re still going to gather together. It shows our strength.”
In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed wrote in a tweet that she was “deeply saddened” by the shooting and that additional police would be patrolling local celebrations.
Stop AAPI Hate, an S.F.-based nonprofit, wrote, “The motive is unclear, but no matter why or who, the undeniable truth is that Asian communities are hurting from this mass shooting. As a group that represents Asian Americans, it’s important to acknowledge moments of shared pain. We see you, we hear you & we will heal together.”
The mass shooting happened around 10:22 p.m. in the 100 block of West Garvey Ave. at Star Dance Studio.
“When officers arrived on scene, they observed numerous individuals, patrons … pouring out of the location, screaming. The officers made entry to the location and located additional victims,” sheriff’s Capt. Andrew Meyer told reporters Sunday morning.
Firefighters pronounced 10 people dead at the scene, including five men and five women, L.A. County Sheriff Luna said. At least 10 others were taken to numerous hospitals, and their conditions range from stable to critical.
About 20 minutes after the shooting, a “male Asian suspect” with a firearm walked into another dance hall in the neighboring suburb of Alhambra, Luna said. “Some individuals wrestled the firearm from him, and that individual took off,” he said.
Law enforcement were on scene Sunday morning in Alhambra at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in the 100 block of South Garfield Avenue, about two miles north of the Monterey Park shooting. It was not clear whether the police activity at that site was the incident referenced by authorities. A handmade sign affixed to the front doors said, “Closed, in observance to Star Dance Tragedy” in red marker. Officials are still working to determine whether there is a connection between the two incidents.
The shooting occurred near the site where tens of thousands had gathered Saturday for the start of a two-day Lunar New Year festival, one of the largest holiday events in the region. Earlier in the day, crowds were enjoying skewers and shopping for Chinese food and jewelry. Saturday’s New Year festival hours were scheduled from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Monterey Park’s two-day Lunar New Year festival had been scheduled to conclude Sunday. But the day’s events are canceled “out of an abundance of caution and in reverence for the victims,” Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese said.
The motive for the shooting remained under investigation, officials said, including as a possible hate crime or domestic violence incident.
The Los Angeles Times contributed reporting to this article.
Source: www.mercurynews.com