MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) — A gunman killed 10 people at a ballroom dance studio amid a day of Lunar New Year celebrations and then may have tried – but failed – to target a seco…
By ANDREW DALTON and JAE C. HONG
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. A gunman killed 10 people at a ballroom dance studio amid a day of Lunar New Year celebrations and then may have tried – but failed – to target a second dance hall, authorities said Sunday. An urgent search was underway across the Los Angeles area for the suspect.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said that 20 to 30 minutes after the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park late Saturday – which left five women and five men dead and another 10 people injured – a man with a gun entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra. Luna said it’s still unclear whether the events are connected.
“We believe that there’s an incident that may be related,” said Luna of the incident in Alhambra. “We’re not quire there yet, but it’s definitely on our radar screen.”
Luna said that a “male Asian suspect” entered the Alhambra club with a “firearm” and that people wrestled the gun away from him before he fled. Investigators are interested in a white cargo van that was seen in the area and that police have the gun from Alhambra.
Luna declined to say what type of gun was recovered in Alhambra, and said that investigators believe the fire arm used Monterey Park was not an “assault rifle.”
The massacre – which derailed Lunar New Year celebrations and sent fear through Monterey Park and Alhambra’s large Asian American communities – was the nation’s fifth mass killing this month.
