Monterey Park shooting: Man who killed 10 people found dead by authorities

the police of USAwhich was on the hunt for the gunman who killed 10 at a nightclub near Los Angeles during Lunar New Year celebrations, stormed into a van after a lengthy standoff on Sunday, and footage showed a lifeless body in the driver’s seat.

The manhunt had begun 12 hours earlier after a man described by police as Asian opened fire in a dance hall in Monterey Parka town in Los Angeles County with a large Asian community.

Look: Police locate possible suspect in Monterey Park mass shooting

Witnesses said the suspect fired indiscriminately and appeared to be heavily armed.

Sheriff Robert Luna said police responded to emergency calls shortly after 10 pm Saturday (0600 GMT Sunday) and found people leaving the facility.

“Unfortunately” paramedics “declared 10 victims dead at the scene,” he said.

Five women and five men died, authorities said without giving names or ages.

At least 10 people were injured, Luna said, some seriously.

President Joe Biden said on Twitter that he was closely following the incident and that he and his wife Jill prayed for the dead and injured.

A body is slumped in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck in Torrance, California. (Robyn BECK / AFP /)

another incident

The sheriff also described a second incident in nearby Alhambra that took place about 20 minutes later, in which an armed Asian man entered a dance studio but was tackled and disarmed. The man fled and no injuries were reported.

Luna pointed out that it is being investigated whether both incidents are related.

Late in the morning, police had a vehicle surrounded in Torrance, south of Los Angeles and just over 25 miles from Monterey Park.

Aerial images showed a white van cornered by armored vehicles, while a large number of patrol cars were nearby, within a wide police cordon.

The Los Angeles Times reported, citing a police source, that shots had been fired at the scene.

The siege culminated in heavily armed uniformed men boarding the van after breaking the passenger-side window with their weapons raised.

Photos taken by AFP at the scene show the lifeless body of a man in the driver’s seat.

The Los Angeles Times said, citing law enforcement sources, that the man had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

There was no immediate confirmation from the police, and previously Luna had only said that a “tactical” operation was taking place. “Could you be our suspect? Possibly, ”she indicated then.

The sheriff’s office had released photos of the suspect apparently taken from surveillance cameras showing an Asian man wearing a beanie and glasses.

Photos provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department show a suspect allegedly involved in a shooting in Monterey Park, California. (Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department via AP /)

New Chinatown

Monterey Park is located about ten kilometers from downtown Los Angeles and is known as the “New Chinatown”, with a majority population of Asian origin.

“We don’t know if this is specifically a hate crime as defined by law,” Luna said, “but who walks into a dance hall and shoots 20 people?”

Despite the shooting, Luna said it was safe to attend Chinese New Year events in the area.

Police and experts were still working at the scene of the massacre, an AFP photographer said. Nearby and on a row of red lanterns, a banner wished the inhabitants a “Happy Year of the Rabbit”.

Wong Wei, who lives in Monterey Park, told the Los Angeles Times that a friend of hers had gone to the club and was in the bathroom when the shooting started.

When he came out, he saw a man carrying a long gun and shooting indiscriminately, as well as the bodies of three people, two women and who he identified as the manager of the nightclub.

According to what Seung Won Choi, owner of a nearby seafood restaurant, told the newspaper, three people ran into his restaurant and told him to lock the door.

They told him there was a man with a semi-automatic weapon and several rounds of ammunition, he added.

The Monterey Park shooting was the deadliest since the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 22 dead at an elementary school on May 24.

According to the Gun Violence Archive website, there were 647 mass shootings in the United States last year, defined as incidents involving four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter.

Source: Elcomercio