President Joe Biden says the nation’s prayers are with two California cities where 18 people were killed in separate mass shootings over the last week.
President Biden on Thursday honored 18 people killed in two California mass shootings, saying “we have to be there” with the communities that have been forever scarred by gun violence.
“Our prayers are with the people of Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, and after yet another spree of gun violence in America,” he said at a Lunar New Year reception at the White House.
Eleven people were killed at a Southern California ballroom dance hall late Saturday and seven others died Monday at two mushroom farms in the northern part of the state.
Biden said he had spoken with Brandon Tsay, 26, who was at a second dance hall a few miles from the scene of the tragedy in Monterey Park when the same gunman entered, brandishing his weapon. Tsay disarmed the gunman, who then fled.
He praised Tsay’s courage, calling him a “genuine hero.”
“Brandon said he thought he was going to die, but then he thought about the people inside,” Biden said, asking the largely Asian American audience to ponder what could have happened had Tsay fled himself.
