On Saturday afternoon, thousands were celebrating the Lunar New Year festival in Monterey Park, a city at the heart of Los Angeles County’s Chinese community.
The festival ended around 9 p.m. An hour later, gunfire erupted inside a dance ballroom on Garvey Avenue, which is near where the festival took place. Here is what we know about the mass shooting that left 10 dead and 10 wounded:
What happened inside the ballroom?
- Few details have emerged. But one Monterey Park resident, Wong Wei, said a friend was in the bathroom when the shooting started. She came out, she saw a gunman and three bodies — two women and one person who was the boss of the club.
- Seung Won Choi, who owns a seafood barbecue restaurant on Garvey Avenue, said three people rushed into his restaurant and told him to lock the door. The shooter, they said, had multiple rounds of ammunition, so that once his ammunition ran out he reloaded, Choi said.
- When police arrived, officers found “numerous individuals, patrons … pouring out of the location, screaming. The officers made entry to the location and located additional victims,” L.A. County sheriff’s Capt. Andrew Meyer said.
What do we know about the victims?
- There has been no formal identity of victims so far. Officials said they don’t know if any of the victims were specifically targeted by the gunman.
What do we know about a motive?
- It is unclear if authorities know the identity of the suspect. They have said they know of a motive.
Is there a connection to the Lunar New Year?
- That also remains unclear. People came from around the region for the festival, which is considered one of the biggest in L.A. County. But it had ended for the day before the shooting.
- The 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.
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