Rabat – A shooting in Los Angeles took 10 lives and injured 10 others following the Asian celebration of the Lunar New Year that took place east of Los Angeles on Saturday night.
Sergeant Bob Boese of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the shooter was male and still at large as of Sunday.
All Lunar New Year events in Monterey Park have been canceled for Sunday, as a precaution and out of respect for the victims of the shooting.
Names of victims and the shooter’s motive remain unknown, as police have not released more information yet.
Monterey park is a city situated 16 kilometers away from downtown Los Angeles. The city, which boasts a population of 60,000, is known for a large Asian population.
The owner of a seafood restaurant near the shooting location told the Los Angeles Times that three people rushed into his business and told him to lock the door, before saying that the shooter had a machine gun and multiple rounds of ammunition.
Saturday marked the beginning of a two-day festival to celebrate the Lunar New Year, one of the biggest celebrations of the event in southern California.
The shooting is the fifth mass shooting in the US this month, according to the Associated Press.
Some are also suspecting that the attack was racially motivated due to the targeted community and timing. Violence against Asians in the country had seen an increase since the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020.
