Ten people have died and at least 10 others been wounded in a mass shooting occurred Saturday night in Monterey Park, east
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the shooting at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park was reported at 10:22 p.m. Saturday. The gunman opened fire at a dance venue in Monterey Park, as the local community were celebrating Lunar New Year, police said.
Footage posted on social media showed injured people on stretchers being taken to ambulances by emergency staff.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said officers had responded to emergency calls around 10:20pm on Saturday and found people pouring out of the premises. The paper quoted the owner as saying that people who sought shelter in his property told him there was a man with a machine gun in the area.
Tens of thousands of people had gathered earlier in the day for the two-day Lunar New Year festival, which is one of the largest in southern California. Monterey Park, is home to around 61,000 people, the majority of them Asian or Asian American.
Gun violence is a huge problem in the United States, which saw 647 mass shootings last year, according to the Gun Violence Archive website, defined as an incident with four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter.