MONTEREY PARK, Calif. — 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 studio?
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?
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said a “very preliminary description” was that the suspect is an Asian man, but he did not provide further details. No motive has been established.
Asked if the case was being investigated as a hate crime, Luna said: “Everything is on the table. ... Who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?”
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.
