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image source, Getty Images
Armed officers found the suspect’s body inside a white pickup truck in the town of Torrance.
Police confirmed the death of the man suspected of killing 10 people in a shooting that occurred in the Californian city of Monterey Park, regarding 13 kilometers east of Los Angeles.
Armed officers surrounded a white pickup truck in the town of Torrance more than 12 hours following the shooting. They broke the window of the truck and found the body of the man, who had shot himself.
The suspect was called Huu Can Tran, a 72-year-old Asian man, reported Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.
Another ten people were injured and some of them are in critical condition.
The gunman fled and may have tried to target a second dance studio in nearby Alhambra, police said.
image source, Getty Images
Police stand guard in the area of the shooting.
The Monterey Park shooting happened around 10:20 p.m. local time Saturday. The police indicated that the victims were five men and five women.
So far the motive for the attack is unknown.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna earlier released photos of the suspect.
“On Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 10:22 p.m., the male/adult/suspect Asian man shown above was involved in a shooting. Investigators have identified him as suspected of murder and should be considered armed and dangerous“he said in a tweet.
new year festival
Thousands of people had gathered in the city for the Lunar New Year festival of Monterey Park, a celebration widely spread in Asia of which the Chinese New Year is a part.
image source, Getty Images
Police at the scene of a shooting on January 22, 2023 in Monterey Park, California.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department dI wroteor the fact as “a mass shooting”.
Videos on social media showed a large police presence in the city.
A witness told the Los Angeles Times that three people ran into his restaurant and told him to lock the door because there was a man with a machine gun semiautomatic In the area.
Capt. Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said authorities were also aware of another incident in the neighboring city of Alhambra, where a suspected gunman was shot down and disarmed and there were no injuries. Meyer said they were studying whether there was a connection to both cases.
image source, EPA
The authorities still do not know the motivation of the assailant, who is still on the run.
US President Joe Biden has ordered the FBI to provide “full support” to local authorities, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted.
For her part, Judy Chu, who was mayor of Monterey Park and is the first Chinese American woman to reach Congress, released a message on her Twitter account: “My heart is broken for the victims, their families and the people of my hometown, Monterey Park, which was affected by the mass shooting.”
It is still unknown if the suspect knew his victims or if they were targeting a particular group.
Authorities said they are reviewing surveillance footage and will review “every angle.”
“It’s too early in the investigation to know if this incident was a hate crime or not.”Meyer told reporters.
In 2021 alone, more than 7,000 hate crimes were reported in the United States, according to the country’s Department of Justice. Two thirds of them were related to race.
The annual Lunar New Year festival is a weekend event that has previously attracted up to 100,000 visitors. The festivities on Saturday night were scheduled to end at 9:00 p.m. local time.
In Monterey Park, which has a population of regarding 60,000 people, more than 65% of the wovenso many are asian Americans and 27% Hispanic or Latino, according to government data.
The city was the first in the continental United States to attract a large majority of residents with Asian descent.
Immigrant communities from Taiwan, mainland China, Japan, and Vietnam settled there.
image source, Getty Images
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