This is yet another bloody news item that strikes the United States, a country in which about 130 people die every day from gunshots on average. A new massacre occurred in the evening from Saturday to Sunday in California. Ten people fell when they wanted to celebrate the Chinese New Year in a dance hall.
A vast manhunt has since been launched to find the author of the shots. We still know very little about him, except that he is “Asian type”. The man “has fled and is wanted,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna simply said in Monterey Park, this predominantly Asian city plunged into deep trauma. This Sunday evening, the authorities announced that the fugitive was surrounded by the police.
The American police therefore seemed to have identified on Sunday a shooter of Asian origin suspected of having killed ten people the night before in a dance hall near Los Angeles, whose customers were celebrating the Lunar New Year. According to several local media, which broadcast live images taken by helicopter, the suspect would be in a white van in a parking lot in Torrance, south of Los Angeles, just over 40 km from Monterey Park, a city with an Asian majority. scene of the killing.
The van was blocked at the front and at the rear by armored police vehicles, noted an AFP photographer on the spot. The police wanted to be cautious about the identity of the person in the vehicle.
“Could this be our suspect?” It’s possible,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told a news conference. “We believe there is someone inside this vehicle. We don’t know his condition but we will manage this as safely as possible in order to try to identify this person.
A man “loaded with ammunition”
The evening was in full swing on Saturday evening before the shots rang out. The police received the first calls shortly after 10 p.m. As soon as they arrived on site, they faced the horror, victims lying in the parking lot of the dance hall and haggard customers. We still do not know the identity of the shooter but also of the deceased, except that it is five men and five women. Ten other victims were taken care of at the hospital, in very variable states, from stable to critical.
The task of the investigators promises to be difficult. In particular, they will seek to determine whether the Monterey Park massacre could be linked to an attempted shooting in another dance hall in Alhambra… A town located just next door. There, the same evening, a man fled after being disarmed. The suspect was, again, “Asian type”. The weapon that was recovered in this dance hall was not an assault rifle, then clarified the investigators.
VIDEO. Deadly shooting in California: at least 10 dead on Lunar New Year’s Eve
The testimony given to the Los Angeles Times by Seung Won Choi, a restaurant owner who worked near the Monterey Park dance hall, allows us to learn more about the course of events. He explains that three people entered his establishment on Saturday evening asking him to lock the doors. These individuals then explained to him that they had faced a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle, loaded with ammunition, who reloaded his weapon regularly.
Investigators do not yet know whether this attack was particularly aimed at the Asian community. “All avenues are being considered. We don’t know if this is a hate crime as defined by law,” Sheriff Luna said. “Hate crime” in the United States refers to an act against a person targeted for elements of their identity such as race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or disability.
For the residents of Monterey Park, these festivities, which were taking place for the first time since the start of the pandemic, had a special taste. It is for a dramatic reason that they will remember it. Close to the dance hall parking lot, the white tents of the night market organized to celebrate the Lunar New Year were still erected in the middle of the street. Above a row of red lanterns, a banner wished residents a ‘Happy Year of the Rabbit’. Joe Biden reacted to this tragedy on Twitter, saying to pray for the victims with his wife, and indicating “to follow the situation closely”.