Huu Can Tran, a 72-year-old man of Asian origin, opened fire on Saturday night during the Lunar New Year celebration in a dance hall in a Californian town near Los Angeles populated mainly by people of Asian origin, causing 10 deaths and 10 wounded before fleeing, authorities said.
• At least ten dead and ten injured in a dance hall
Capt. Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office told reporters that he responded to emergency calls around 10:10 p.m. Saturday (7:10 a.m. Sunday French time) and then discovered people fleeing the place.
Police entered the scene and located additional victims,” he said. The emergency services “cared for the wounded and declared the death of 10 of the victims at the scene.”
“There are at least 10 other victims who have been transported to various local hospitals and are in stable or critical condition,” he added.
• Death of the shooter after a chase
The suspected shooter in the California Lunar New Year mass shooting died Sunday after a large manhunt. He had “run away” and authorities were actively looking for him.
This hunt ended in a dramatic sequence, with footage taken from a helicopter and broadcast live from Torrance, just over 25 miles from Monterey Park. The vehicle, a white pickup truck parked in a parking lot, was blocked from the front and rear by armored police vehicles.
The police officers then approached the vehicle with great caution and entered it. In AFP images, a lifeless body is seen in the front of the van. So far the motive for the attack is unknown and the investigation continues, authorities say.
• A new drama in the United States
Monterey Park, a city of about 61,000 mostly Asian residents, is located about eight miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
The United States pays a heavy price for the proliferation of firearms on its soil and the ease with which Americans have access to them. That same Saturday night, 12 people were shot at a nightclub in Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, a new illustration from which no part of American daily life seems immune.
Some 49,000 people were killed by firearms in the United States in 2021, up from 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.
• Joe Biden orders flags at half mast
All American flags that adorn public establishments will be lowered to half mast in tribute to the victims of the massacre in Monterey Park, California, President Joe Biden ordered on Sunday.
The American President ordered that the drapes fall more in Bern jusqu’au soir du Janvier 26 “en signe de respect pour les victims des acts of senseless violence perpetrated on Janvier 21, 2023 at Monterey Park, in California”, according to a press release from the House White
Source: BFM TV
