California shooting suspect kills himself after Lunar New Year massacre

MONTEREY PARK, California — A gunman killed 10 people at a ballroom dance hall during a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration late on Saturday near Los Angeles before fleeing the scene and later killing himself when approached by police on Sunday, authorities said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a Sunday afternoon press conference the motive for the shooting was not known. He identified the suspect as Huu Can Tran, 72, who wielded a pistol with a high-capacity magazine.

“We want to know, we want to know how something this awful can happen,” Luna told reporters.

Luna said Tran turned a handgun on himself on Sunday morning as police approached a white van he was driving in Torrance, about 20 miles (34 km) from the site of the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park.

Five of the victims were male and five were female, Luna said. Their identities have not been made public. Another ten people were shot, and seven of them remain hospitalized, with at least one person in critical condition, authorities said.

The sheriff’s department released images of the suspect apparently taken from surveillance camera footage showing him wearing spectacles, dressed in a dark jacket and a dark beanie hat with white stripe.

Luna confirmed that Tran was involved in another incident at a dance venue in the neighboring city of Alhambra about 20 minutes after the Saturday night shooting in Monterey Park. At the second venue, witnesses said Tran walked in holding a gun that patrons were able to grab. No one was shot and Tran fled, Luna said.

When police arrived at the Monterey Park ballroom, people were “pouring out of the location screaming,” department captain Andrew Meyer told reporters at a news briefing.

The shooting took place after 10 p.m. PST (0600 GMT on Sunday) around the location of a two-day Chinese Lunar New Year celebration where many downtown streets are closed for festivities that draw thousands of people from across Southern California. Police said the celebrations planned for Sunday were canceled.

A close-knit community

Residents stood gazing at the many blocks sealed off with police tape on Sunday in Monterey Park. Chester Chong, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, described the city of about 60,000 people as a quiet, peaceful, beautiful place where everybody knows each other and helps each other.

About 7 miles (11 km) from downtown Los Angeles, the city has for decades been a destination for immigrants from China. Around 65% of its residents are Asian, according to U.S. Census data, and the city is known for its many Chinese restaurants and groceries.

“People were calling me last night, they were scared this was a hate crime,” Chong said at the scene.

The Star Ballroom Dance Studio opened in 1990, and its website features many photographs of past Lunar New Year celebrations showing patrons smiling and dancing in party clothes in its large, brightly lit ballroom.

Most of its patrons are middle-aged or elderly, though children also attend youth dance classes, according to a teacher at the studio who asked to not be named.

“Those are normal working people,” the teacher said. “Some are retired and just looking for an exercise or social interaction.”

A flyer posted on the website advertised Saturday night’s new year party, running from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

The gunshots were mistaken by some for new year fireworks, according to Tiffany Chiu, 30, who was celebrating at her parents’ home near the ballroom.

“A lot of older people live here, it’s usually really quiet,” she said. “This is not something you expect here.”

Video taken by local news media showed injured people, many of them appearing to be middle aged, being loaded into ambulances on stretchers.

President Joe Biden condemned the killings in a written statement and said he had directed his Homeland Security adviser to mobilize federal support to local authorities.

Mass shootings are recurrent in the United States, and the attack in Monterey Park was the deadliest since May 2022, when a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas. The deadliest shooting in California history was in 1984 when a gunman killed 21 people at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, near San Diego.

-reuters

At least six dead in California shooting

SAN FRANCISCO — Six people were killed and 12 others injured, some critically, in a shooting early Sunday morning in California's state capital of Sacramento.

The city's police chief, Kathy Lester, told reporters that around 2:00 am, "a large fight took place" in the downtown area just before "multiple shooters" opened fire.

Officers on patrol nearby heard the gunshots and saw people running, she said.

Upon arriving at the scene, "they encountered a large crowd and multiple gunshot victims."

Despite attempts at resuscitation, 6 victims were pronounced dead at the scene, 3 men and 3 women -- all adults.

Twelve others were hit by gunfire and are being treated in local hospitals, Lester said.

At a press conference Sunday morning, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg described some of the hospitalized as "seriously and critically injured."

He also called on anyone with information to contact authorities or submit evidence via a scannable QR code.

Lester said that a "stolen handgun" had been recovered at the scene, and that investigators had already received multiple videos and tips from members of the public.

A video posted online Sunday appeared to show people scuffling in the street, then starting to run as gunfire can be heard. AFP could not verify the footage, and it was not known if there was a direct relation, but local police said they were aware of the video.

"It was just horrific," said community activist Berry Accius, who arrived minutes after the shooting.

"Just as soon as I walked up you saw a chaotic scene, police all over the place, victims with blood all over their bodies, folks screaming, folks crying, people going, 'Where is my brother?' Mothers crying and trying to identify who their child was," he told local broadcaster KXTV.

The shooting happened in the downtown area, just blocks from the state capitol and close to the venue where the NBA's Sacramento Kings play.

The San Francisco Chronicle quoted a woman at the scene as saying she had been told that her husband of 12 years was among the dead.

The woman, whom the paper did not name, said a stranger had answered her husband's telephone when their daughter called, but that she had been unable to find out what had happened, despite being on police lines for several hours.

"It sounds like a lot of innocent people lost their lives tonight," the Chronicle quoted the woman saying.

"We haven't gotten an answer."

'DIFFICULT TO COMPREHEND' 

Mayor Steinberg said it was difficult to find the right words to describe the tragedy.

"The numbers of dead and wounded are difficult to comprehend," he said, adding that he was waiting for more information about the incident. 

"Rising gun violence is the scourge of our city, state and nation, and I support all actions to reduce it," he said.

The mass casualty shooting is the latest in the United States, where firearms are involved in approximately 40,000 deaths a year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, in a post on Twitter, said "We cannot continue to let gun violence be the new normal," and described gun violence as a "crisis" for the United States.

Lax gun laws and a constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms have repeatedly stymied attempts to clamp down on the number of weapons in circulation, despite greater controls being favored by the majority of Americans.

Three-quarters of all homicides in the US are committed with guns, and the number of pistols, revolvers and other firearms sold continues to rise.

More than 23 million guns were sold in 2020 -- a record -- on top of 20 million in 2021, according to data compiled by website Small Arms Analytics.

That number does not include "ghost" guns, which are sold disassembled, lack serial numbers, and are highly prized in criminal circles.

In June 2021, 30 percent of American adults said they owned at least one gun, according to a Pew survey.

Agence France-Presse 

TikTok teen star shot dead at US cinema

TikTok star Anthony Barajas has died after being shot at a California movie theater in what authorities described as a "random and unprovoked" attack.

Barajas, 19, died Saturday after the shooting that also killed his 18-year-old friend Rylee Goodrich, said police in Corona in southern California said.

The victims were shot Monday at a theater that was showing "The Forever Purge," about a totalitarian government that one night a year allows any crime to be committed, including murder.

Theater staff found the two shot in the head after the movie, which was sparsely attended. Goodrich died at the scene and Barajas was rushed to a hospital. 

"Based on the evidence provided to our office, this appears to be a random and unprovoked attack," local prosecutors said in a statement Friday. 

Joseph Jimenez, 20, has been charged in the shooting. Police acting on tips from witnesses arrested him at his home the day after the assault.

Police have said he apparently acted alone and did not know the victims.

Barajas had nearly 930,000 followers on TikTok and was a reportedly a standout soccer player in high school.

The United States has a long and painful history of deadly gun violence, in the form of a steady daily toll of shootings as well as high-profile mass killings that have targeted schools, workplaces and shopping centers. 

In 2012, a heavily armed man killed 12 people in a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, during the screening of the movie "The Dark Knight Rises".

Agence France-Presse

California shooting shows security vulnerabilities on buses

LOS ANGELES – Would-be plotters bent on staging an attack aboard a passenger plane know they’ve first got to pass through a gauntlet of security measures at an airport, from body scans and spot interrogations to pat-downs and even close scrutiny of their shoes.

But a shooting that killed a person and wounded five this week on a Greyhound bus in California illustrates a stark reality about security on buses and trains: Anyone determined to carry out an attack on ground transportation faces few, if any, security checks.

The comparative scant security prompted at least one survivor of Monday’s shooting on the bus heading from Los Angeles to San Francisco to rethink his future mode of travel.

“I think I will just fly from now on,” Mark Grabban said.

He was on the bus with his girlfriend when a passenger who’d been muttering and cursing opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun.

Grabban’s perception was that Greyhound worried more about stopping passengers from smoking and talking too loudly than ensuring no one got aboard with a gun.

“It’s astounding and shameful,” the 30-year-old said.

Greyhound has declined to comment.

In the four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, some U.S. lawmakers complained that way too little federal money was spent on ground transit security compared with what was spent on airports.

Then-U.S. Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, estimated that $22 billion had gone into airline security in those years, while less than $550 million went to security for buses, trains, subways and ferries combined.

There’s no indication spending gaps have closed. That’s true even though vastly more people get on a bus, train or subway than on planes each day. More than 30 million Americans use ground transit daily, compared with around 2 million who fly.



Violent incidents on buses are extremely rare. But concerns have arisen that with airports more secure than ever, would-be terrorists in particular could see buses and other ground transit as easier targets.

The Transportation Security Administration was established in 2001 to fix security holes that allowed for the 9/11 attacks, with a mandate to check 100% of baggage through airports.

That level of security would be impossible on the country’s sprawling bus and rail lines.

More than 70,000 buses operate on 230,000 miles (370,149 kilometers) of roadways, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Even if money could be found to pay for metal detectors at bus stations, it would be impossible to have them at every stop along a route, security experts say.

The suspect in the California shooting boarded at the East Seventh Street bus station in Los Angeles, according to California Highway Patrol Sgt. Brian Pennings. At the station Tuesday, several security guards were visible, but there were no signs of baggage or any other kind of security checks.

“No metal detector, no wand, nothing,” Grabban recalled about the preboarding process Monday. Greyhound has a no-gun policy, but Grabban said “a policy isn’t enough to stop someone from boarding the bus with a gun and shooting people, as I’ve found out.”

There’s no indication federal officials will ever consider making pat-downs, body scans and metal detectors as ubiquitous at bus and train depots as they are at airports.

“We don’t intend to roll out anything like what we have in the airports. We are satisfied at this point,” Transportation Security Administration Administrator David Pekoske said in 2017.

TSA’s mandate does include security on all the nation’s transportation networks. But the vast majority of the TSA’s more than 43,000 security officers work at the over 400 U.S. airports. TSA efforts beyond airports often take the form of partnerships, advice and federal grants.

States and municipalities assume more responsibility for their local bus or subway systems, and there’s little uniformity nationwide.


The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority together with TSA officials announced in 2018 that it would become the first mass transit system in the U.S. to install screening equipment that scans passengers for weapons and explosives.

The TSA has deployed response teams that have done spot baggage checks on city subway systems, including in Chicago.

“It’s largely to create the perception that there is an active security program more than a realistic chance of catching someone,” said Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation expert and economics professor at DePaul University in Chicago. “They want anyone thinking of carrying a gun into the system to think twice.”

Just because passengers don’t see security measures at bus and train stations doesn’t mean they aren’t there, explained another Chicago-based security expert, James Fagel. He said undercover staff are often looking for signs someone might be carrying a gun, while others trained to spot behavior quirks that could indicate trouble monitor depots via surveillance cameras.

Few countries have attempted the kinds of security measures for ground transit that could plausibly thwart an attack. Israel is one. At least some Israeli buses are fitted with four or five separated, fortified compartments, which can help limit the deadliness of a bomb or gun attack, said Fagel, who teaches crisis management at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Among measures to boost security on U.S. buses and trains that wouldn’t be too costly or impractical would include requirements that riders show IDs that match names on tickets before boarding, Schwieterman said. He said enabling bus and train services to check the names of ticket buyers to see if they have violent criminal records also could help manage risks.

As it is now, drivers and passengers are the de facto, frontline security when violence breaks out on buses. That happened during a 2014 attack in which a man screaming “everybody’s going to die” pummeled the driver and caused a Greyhound bus to careen off an Arizona highway, injuring more than 20 people. Passengers were credited with subduing the assailant.

Same goes for Monday’s attack. Authorities say passengers wrested the gun away from 33-year-old Anthony Devonte Williams and got him off the bus. He was arrested on the side of the road. Officials praised the efforts as heroic, though they didn’t immediately provide details.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

2 women killed, child hurt in shooting at Texas dormitory

COMMERCE, Texas  — Two women were killed and a child was wounded in a shooting Monday morning at a university dormitory in Texas, officials said.

A recommendation for students and employees to shelter in place was lifted early Monday afternoon at Texas A&M University-Commerce, and police said there appeared to be no other threats. Officials have not identified the suspected shooter.

University police Chief Bryan Vaughn said officers responding to a call at about 10:17 a.m. found two dead women in a room at Pride Rock residence hall. He said a boy about 2 years old was also in the room and was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition.

Vaughn did not take questions after a news conference and did not say if the women were students.

Classes were canceled for the day at the university located in the city about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northeast of Dallas.

The university lifted the shelter-in-place recommendation about an hour and a half after it was announced on Twitter.

But the university said that even with the lifting of the recommendation, the residence hall and the surrounding area was still blocked off due to the ongoing investigation.

The university said the student center would be available for displaced students and that counselors were available there.

Larry Cooper III, a freshman who lives in the Pride Rock residence hall, told the Dallas Morning News that he left his room Monday just before the shelter-in-place was announced. He said he was waiting in a friend’s room on the first floor of the residence hall.

“There’s police blocking the doorways, but other than that we’re all just kind of sitting in and waiting on the news to happen,” Cooper said.

Last October, two people were killed and a dozen others injured in an off-campus shooting at a homecoming and Halloween party involving Texas A&M-Commerce students.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

After Texas shooting, Democrat O’Rourke accuses Trump of stoking racism

EL PASO, United States — Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke accused President Donald Trump Saturday of inciting hatred after a mass shooting in his Texas hometown that police are investigating as a possible hate crime.

Speaking to reporters outside a hospital in El Paso where he was visiting victims of the shooting, O’Rourke said Trump had proven himself a racist with his recent attacks on four ethnic minority congresswomen and his past branding of Mexicans as rapists.


“He is a racist and he stokes racism in this country. And it does not just offend our sensibilities, it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence,” said O’Rourke, who represented El Paso in the US Congress until recently.

“We’ve had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years during an administration where you have a president who’s called Mexicans rapists and criminals.”

O’Rourke was responding to questions about a manifesto purportedly written by the gunman which railed against the Hispanic “invasion” of Texas which borders Mexico.

More than 80 percent of El Paso’s population is Hispanic, according to US census figures.


Asked if any of the contents of the manifesto should “fall at the feet” of Trump, O’Rourke replied: “Yes.”

“There are still details that we are waiting on but I’m just following the lead that I’ve heard from the El Paso police department where they say there are strong indications that this shooter wrote that manifesto and that this was inspired by his hatred of people here in this community.”

A suspect being questioned by police over the shooting has not been named by the authorities, although US media have identified him as Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old who lives on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas.

After nearly ousting the incumbent Texas Senator Ted Cruz in last year’s mid-term elections, O’Rourke had been one of the favorites to challenge Trump for the presidency when he announced his candidancy in March. His campaign, however, has faltered since then.

Trump has faced growing accusations of racism since he attacked the four left-leaning lawmakers last month in a series of tweets, saying they should “go back” to their countries of origin. The president insists he hasn’t “a racist bone” in his body.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Students kill classmate, injure 8 at school near Columbine

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colorado — Two high school students shot and killed a classmate and injured eight others at a charter school in a Colorado community that marked the 20th anniversary of one of the nation’s worst school shootings just weeks ago.

Douglas County sheriff’s officials said Devon Erickson, 18, and a younger student walked into the STEM School Highlands Ranch Tuesday afternoon and opened fire on students in two classrooms, prompting students to run shouting through the halls or to hide out of sight as gunfire echoed through school.

“At the moment no one really knew what was going on so I didn’t know they were bullets,” said seventh-grader Sophia Marks. “I just kind of saw like flashes and we heard bangs.”

Within minutes, deputies at a nearby sheriff’s department substation entered the school and arrested the two suspects after a struggle. Both were students at the school and they were not previously known to authorities, Sheriff Tony Spurlock said.

Josh Dutton, 18, told The Associated Press that he was close friends with Devon Erickson in middle school but hadn’t seen him for four years as he went to a different high school. On Sunday, he spotted Erickson at a local light rail station and said he was shocked at how much his friend had changed.

Erickson wore all black, a hat and sunglasses, was significantly skinnier and didn’t seem interested in talking.

“He said he’d just turned 18 and he owned rifles,” Dutton said.

A message left at a phone number listed for Erickson’s home was not immediately returned.

The shooting took place exactly a week after a gunman killed two students and wounded four at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. It also comes nearly three weeks after neighboring Littleton marked the grim 20th anniversary of the Columbine school massacre that killed 13 people. The two schools are separated by about 7 miles (11 kilometers) in adjacent communities south of Denver.

“Tragically, this community and those surrounding it know all too well these hateful and horrible acts of violence,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting and was in touch with state and local officials, Deere said.

“The heart of all Colorado is with the victims and their families,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.

STEM is a public charter school with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math. It has more than 1,850 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

As the gunfire rang out, students ran through the halls shouting “School shooter!”  Some wondered at first if it was a joke or a drill.

Chris Elledge, 15, said his teacher told the class to hide behind weight equipment in the room, where they stayed until police arrived.

“They busted in the room, and they were asking if there was any suspects in the room, if we were OK, and they escorted us out to go out to the front of the building,” Elledge said.

Frantic parents used their cellphones to find their children as news of the shooting spread. Sophia Marks’ mother, Sara Marks, said she has two other children who also go to the school.

“When you have no idea what’s going on and the children are texting you that they’re hiding under a desk and bullets are hitting their window, or things are hitting their window, it’s a horrible feeling,” she said.

Three hospitals reported treating eight people in connection with the attack, including two who were listed in serious condition. At least four others were released by Tuesday night.

Fernando Montoya told television station KMGH that his 17-year-old son was shot three times but was expected to make a full recovery.

“Thank God he is fine,” Montoya said. “Even though he got shot, he’s OK. He’s going to walk out on his feet, so I’m glad. We’re so lucky.” /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Police: 1 person killed at Illinois mall, shooter at large

ORLAND PARK, Ill. — Authorities say a man was shot and killed at a suburban Chicago mall and the suspect remains at large.

Orland Park police say the 19-year-old was shot in the center of Orland Square Mall and ran away before collapsing outside a clothing store Monday evening. The man later died at the hospital.

Deputy Police Chief Joseph Mitchell says a bystander suffered a graze wound to the leg and was being treated at another hospital.

Mitchell says security video showed a male shooter fleeing the mall but it’s unclear if he continued on foot or got into a vehicle. Mitchell calls the shooting an “isolated incident,” saying video shows the two people involved knew each other and that the victim was “targeted.”

Police departments from several neighboring towns, as well as the FBI and ATF responded to the mall about 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) southwest of Chicago./gsg

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Man shot at New Jersey mall on Black Friday

ELIZABETH, New Jersey — A man was shot during Black Friday shopping at a New Jersey mall, sending terrified shoppers running and hiding in stores.

The man was shot in the wrist Friday night at The Mills at Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, city spokeswoman Kelly Martins said. She said his injuries didn’t appear life-threatening.


No suspect was in custody, and the victim was not cooperating with police, Martins said. Police were reviewing camera footage.

The mall was evacuated after the shooting, which happened in a hallway between a Tommy Hilfiger and a Marshalls store, Martins said.

Carli Disla, her boyfriend and their 6-week-old daughter were in a Cohoes fashion store, heading to the cash registers, when the couple noticed people running.

“They were yelling, ‘Hide, everyone, hide! They are shooting!’” Disla, 22, told The Associated Press in an interview via Twitter.

She and her boyfriend grabbed the newborn out of her car seat, ran to the back of the store and hid in its receiving area. The store’s security gates were pulled down and the exits locked until police and state troopers told shoppers and staffers they couldn’t leave until everything was under control, Disla said. They were allowed to leave around 9 p.m.

"It was a horrible experience and very traumatizing,” Disla said.

But fortunately, the baby didn’t pick up on the fright — she slept through the whole experience.

Jeanette Bermudez told WPIX-TV she was working as a manager in a store when she suddenly heard people running so intensely they sounded like they were stomping. Bermudez and her coworkers shut the shop’s security gate and ushered shoppers into the back.

Geni Genuino was getting some food when the sound of gunshots suddenly erupted.

"Everyone started running out of the mall,” Genuino told the AP via Twitter, adding that the sound stopped for a few minutes, then seemed to start again.

Finally, Genuino found an exit and ran outside.

The mall had been open since 10 a.m. Thursday to accommodate Black Friday shoppers, and about 25,000 people visited throughout the two days, Martins said.

A call to the mall went unanswered, and a management representative did not immediately respond to an email.

Meanwhile, violence also broke out during the Black Friday rush at a mall in Syracuse, New York, where police told local media that two men were stabbed around 4:15 p.m.

It wasn’t immediately clear what sparked the confrontation in a Macy’s store at Destiny USA. Officers found one man stabbed in the abdomen and another man wounded elsewhere on his body. Both are in their 20s and were taken to a hospital, police said.

The mall’s management said in a statement that the bloodshed was an “isolated incident” and “absolutely unacceptable.”

The management said it “strengthens our resolve to remain vigilant.” /atm

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net