Los Angeles: Ten dead people killed in gun attack

USA
Ten people killed in Los Angeles gun attack

A police vehicle is parked near the crime scene. At least nine people were shot dead during a Chinese New Year celebration in the Los Angeles area.

© Jae C Hong/AP/DPA

A violent crime breaks out in California not far from a Chinese New Year celebration. Several people die. The background is still unclear.

Ten people were shot dead during a Chinese New Year celebration in the Los Angeles area. Previously, the number was given as nine. As the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office announced that the crime occurred on Saturday evening (local time) in Monterey Park, a suburb of the Pacific metropolis in the US state of California that is mostly inhabited by people of Asian origin. The alleged perpetrator has not yet been caught, reported Andrew Meyer from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office at a press conference early Sunday morning (local time).

At least ten other people were taken to hospitals with injuries, Meyer said. Of the at least ten injured, some were in mortal danger. According to eyewitnesses, a man shot himself with an automatic rifle. The attack was reportedly carried out at a club where visitors were celebrating Chinese New Year. Meyer said loudly “Los Angeles Times”, the investigators do not know whether the victims were deliberately shot. It is too early to say if the shooting is a hate crime. It is also unclear whether there is a connection between the crime in Monterey Park and a gun incident in the neighboring city of Alhambra.

The search for the perpetrator continued for several hours after the attack. The police initially did not publish a description of the suspect and did not provide any information about the murder weapon. The investigators wanted to evaluate recordings from surveillance cameras.

Shots in Los Angeles: unclear if hate crime

“When the officers arrived at the scene, they saw numerous people, visitors to the restaurant, pouring out of the restaurant screaming,” Meyer said. The perpetrator fled.

A local resident told the Los Angeles Times that his girlfriend was in the club when she heard gunshots. She later saw an armed man and three bodies – two women and the owner of the club. The owner of a restaurant near the crime scene said three people ran into his place and asked him to lock the door. They said the shooter carried so much ammunition that he could reload over and over again.

More than 44,000 people died from guns in the United States last year

Gun violence is a big problem in the US. The country has more guns than people: one in three adults owns at least one gun and almost one in two adults lives in a household where there is a gun.

According to the website Gun Violence Archive, more than 44,000 people were killed by guns in the United States last year alone. More than half of the cases involved suicide.

Gun law is one of the most contentious issues in the United States. While President Joe Biden’s Democrats generally advocate stricter gun laws, opposition Republicans oppose it. They insist on the fundamental right to gun ownership enshrined in the US Constitution.

Note: This article has been updated.

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