10 dead in shooting outside Los Angeles venue
MONTEREY PARK: A man fatally shot 10 people at a ballroom dance venue where people were celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year late on Saturday in a city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles, and he was still at large after fleeing the scene, police said.
Another 10 people were taken to local hospitals to be treated for injuries, and at least one was in critical condition, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said early on Sunday morning, about five hours after the attack in Monterey Park.
When local police first arrived, people were “pouring out of the location screaming,” department captain Andrew Meyer told reporters in a news briefing at the scene. There was no immediate information about a motive for the shooting or a description of the suspect or kind of gun used.
The shooting took place after 10 pm PST (06:00 GMT on Sunday) around the location of a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration where many downtown streets are closed for festivities that draw thousands of people from across Southern California. Police said the festivities planned for Sunday were now cancelled.
Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people around 11 km from downtown Los Angeles.
About two-thirds of its residents are Asian, according to US Census data, and the city is known for its many Chinese restaurants and groceries. The sheriff’s department said it did not know whether the attack was racially motivated. Footage posted on social media showed injured people on stretchers being taken to ambulances by emergency staff.