Reports of multiple deaths after a mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration Saturday night in Monterey Park, Calif., just east of Los Angeles, drew dozens of police responders to the scene.
AP details local officials initially provided no information about the shooting in the city of about 60,000 people with a large Asian population that’s about 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
Early Sunday morning it was announced 10 people were killed and another 12 injured in the incident.
Capt. Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said Sunday the wounded were taken to hospitals and their conditions range from stable to critical. Meyer said the 10 people died at the scene.
Meyer said people were “pouring out of the location screaming” when officers arrived on the scene. He said officers then went into the dance ballroom as firefighters treated the wounded.
Earlier Sgt. Bob Boese of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told AP the shooting was reported at 10:22 p.m. and occurred at a business on Garvey Ave. in Monterey Park. The shooter is a male, Boese said early Sunday.
Officials provided no information for several hours after dozens of police officers had responded to reports of the shooting.
Earlier in the day, thousands of people attended the annual festival and social gathering.
Seung Won Choi, proprietor of the Clam House seafood barbecue restaurant across the street from where the shooting happened, told the Los Angles Times three people rushed into his business and told him to lock the door behind them.
Investigators gather at a scene where a shooting took place in Monterey Park, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023. Dozens of police officers responded to reports of a shooting that occurred after a large Lunar New Year celebration in a community east of Los Angeles late Saturday. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Two police officers stand guard near a scene where a shooting took place in Monterey Park, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The people also alleged a shooter with a machine gun was on the loose who had multiple rounds of ammunition on him so he could reload. Choi said he believes the shooting took place at a dance club.
The newspaper reported that the shooting happened after 10 p.m.
Saturday was the start of the two-day festival, which is one of the largest Lunar New Year events in Southern California.
The Monterey Park government website said the event, on Garvey Avenue, “features vendors offering unique gifts and specialty items, food booths with various types of delectable items, amusement rides, and lots of live entertainment.”
According to the New York Times, Monterey Park is around 65 percent Asian American and 27 percent Hispanic or Latino.
The city was the first in the continental United States to have a majority of residents with Asian ancestry, as communities of immigrants from Taiwan, mainland China, Japan and Vietnam settled there.