9 people died in a mass shooting near Los Angeles after celebrating the Lunar New Year

At least nine people were killed in a mass shooting in a city east of Los Angeles late Saturday after a Lunar New Year celebration that drew thousands of people. the police said.

Sergeant Bob Boes of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the shooting happened at 10:22 p.m. at a business on Harvey Avenue in Monterey Park. The shooter is a man, Boes said early Sunday.

It is not yet clear if the suspect is in custody.

Officials did not release any information in the hours after dozens of police officers responded to reports of the shooting.

Los Angeles Times informed The shooting happened at a dance club and local resident Wong Wei told the newspaper that his friend was at the club and she was in the bathroom when the shooting happened.

When she came out, she saw a gunman and three bodies — two women and one man, who he said was the boss of the club.

Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 with an Asian population located about 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

Saturday marked the beginning of the two-day festival, which is one of the largest New Year’s events in Southern California. Earlier in the day, thousands of people attended the annual festival.

One neighbor said CBS Los Angeles the shots sounded like fireworks, but because of the festivities in the area, he didn’t think much of it at the time.

Seung Won Choi, owner of a nearby seafood restaurant, told the Los Angeles Times that three people broke into his restaurant. People, he said, said there was a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle who reloaded after opening fire.

“Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones tonight in our neighboring city of Monterey Park, where a mass shooting just happened,” said Los Angeles City Dispatch Kenneth Mejia. tweet.

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

In 2022, more than 44,000 people died from gunshot wounds, more than half of which were suicides.

The country has more guns than people, with one in three adults owning at least one gun and nearly one in two adults living in a home with a gun.

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