Los Angeles: Several dead in shooting at Chinese New Year party

Los Angeles: The shooting occurred around 10 p.m. at a dance studio on Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park. Monterey Park is a city in Los Angeles county, around 7 miles (11 km) from downtown Los Angeles. It is one of the anchor suburbs in the San Gabriel Valley, a hub of Asian American supermarkets and restaurants.

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. Tens of thousands of people had attended the festival earlier in the day. The violence left many in the area and beyond stunned. Injured people were taken to multiple hospitals in the area.

Nine people were killed in a mass shooting late Saturday in a city east of Los Angeles following a Lunar New Year celebration that attracted thousands, the police officer said.

Images shared on social media showed police cars manning cordoned-off streets that were deserted.

Gun violence in the United States

Gun violence is a major issue in the United States, and incidents of gun violence occur frequently across the country. Edwin Chen, a 47-year-old delivery dispatcher, rushed over from Woodland Hills to Monterey Park around 12:30 a.m. after hearing the news. Chen grew up in the area and about a dozen of his family and friends live there.

He said he was saddened this happened just as the community was celebrating Lunar New Year.

Seung Won Choi, who owns a seafood barbecue restaurant on Garvey Avenue across from where the shooting happened, said three people rushed into his restaurant and told him to lock the door.

They said there was a man with a semiautomatic gun in the area. The shooter, they said, had multiple rounds of ammunition on him, so that once his ammunition ran out he reloaded, Choi added.

Wong Wei said his friend had attended the dance club that night with a few of her friends. His friend was in the bathroom when the shooting started. The shooter was carrying a “long” gun and appeared to fire indiscriminately, his friends told him.“They don’t know why, so they run,” he added.

John, 27, who declined to give his last name, lives near the shooting site. He got home around 10 p.m. and heard about 4 or 5 gunshots, he said. Then he heard police cruisers “smashing” down the street. He went downstairs at around 11:20 p.m. to see if the shooting occurred at the New Year festival. “My first concern was I know they’re having a Lunar New Year celebration,” he said. But he said he saw that the festival had already been cleaned up for the day when he arrived.

Also read: Elon Musk: Twitter plans to roll out zero ads subscription model