Deadly shooting turns Monterey Park’s mass celebration into massacre on Lunar New Year

MONTEREY PARK, Calif.  — The pink lanterns bobbed and banners proclaimed “Happy Year of the Rabbit” however Monterey Park’s well-known Lunar New Year festivities have been dropped at an abrupt finish by a shooting that left 10 individuals lifeless and one other 10 wounded.

Distributors dismantled stalls and employees took aside a fairground on Sunday within the usually placid group of 60,000, the place 1000’s from throughout Southern California gathered on Saturday.

Town on the japanese fringe of Los Angeles was holding its first in-person celebration of the Lunar New Year because the COVID-19 pandemic started.

However the festivities turned into bloody mayhem as a person was accused of fatally shooting 10 individuals at a ballroom dance venue late on Saturday. Officers mentioned at the least one other 10 individuals have been taken to native hospitals to be handled for wounds.

Video taken by native information media after the shooting confirmed injured individuals, lots of them showing to be center aged, being loaded into ambulances on stretchers.

“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 violence,” California Governor Gavin Newsom mentioned.

Monterey Park is round 7 miles (11 km) from downtown Los Angeles. About two-thirds of its residents are Asian, in keeping with US Census knowledge, and town is understood for its many Chinese language eating places and groceries.

Heading into the deliberate weekend celebrations, town mentioned on its official Twitter web page {that a} two-day open avenue occasion was going to be held within the downtown space.

“It has always been an exciting and memorable event with thousands of guests and hundreds of vendors joining us for fun activities, shopping and entertainment, and delicious food,” town mentioned in its Thursday announcement.

The festivities scheduled for Sunday have been canceled after the mass shooting.

When police arrived on the shooting scene, individuals have been “pouring out of the location screaming,” mentioned Andrew Meyer, captain of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division.

The suspect entered the ballroom dance venue and opened hearth. The shooting website was close to the Lunar New Year competition.

Police haven’t named the dance membership however have been seen going out and in of the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, entry to which was blocked off by police tape. The membership opened in 1990, and its web site options many pictures of previous Lunar New Year celebrations exhibiting patrons smiling and dancing in occasion garments in its massive, brightly lit ballroom.

A flyer posted on the web site marketed Saturday night time’s new yr occasion, operating from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

“I was just in this area with my parents and I was celebrating Lunar New Year last night,” mentioned Cindy Phung, who attended the competition celebrations.

Her household left the world earlier than the shooting occurred, she mentioned. — Reuters

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