Population of California shocked by mass killings
2023.01.24 04:45
Population of California shocked by mass killings
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – California experienced one of its bloodiest waves of mass gun violence in decades, with seven more victims being shot dead in an agricultural area near San Francisco just two days after a gunman killed 11 people at a dance studio in the Los Angeles area.
The fact that the suspects in both of the rampages were men of retirement age—much older than is typical for perpetrators of deadly mass shootings that have become numbingly commonplace in the United States—made the authorities’ claim that they had not identified the motive for either of the attacks all the more puzzling.
When he was informed of the killings on Monday in northern California, California Governor Gavin Newsom stated that he was visiting the injured victims of the massacre that occurred on Saturday night in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park.
Twitter post by Newsom read, “Tragedy upon tragedy.”
The shootings that occurred simultaneously appeared to share little else.
The most recent outbreak of gun violence took place in the coastal town of Half Moon Bay, which is about 30 miles south of San Francisco. A gunman opened fire on two groups of farm workers about a mile apart, killing seven people and injuring one severely before fleeing the scene.
After being discovered sitting in his vehicle parked outside a sheriff’s station, where authorities said they believed he had come to turn himself in, the 67-year-old accused gunman was taken into custody a short time later.
At a news conference in the evening, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus disclosed that his car contained a handgun that was semi-automatic.
Corpus stated that the suspect had worked at one of the two crime scenes and was “fully cooperating” with investigators following his arrest. She referred to the locations as “nurseries” farms where some of the workers also resided. One location was described as a mushroom farm by local media.
Police reported that a “shooting between several individuals” in Oakland resulted in the death of one person and the injuries of seven others, suggesting gang violence, in a separate incident that occurred in the Bay Area on Monday evening but received far less attention. The police provided few specifics, but stated that the remaining victims had all made it to nearby hospitals.
As police worked through a second full day of their investigation into the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, just east of downtown Los Angeles, where a gunman killed 11 people, news of the massacre in Half Moon Bay emerged. Nine more were injured.
The 72-year-old suspect, according to the authorities, drove next to a town and barged into a second dance hall. However, the owner of the club confronted the suspect and wrestled the weapon away after a brief argument.
Tran, who had frequented the Star Ballroom for a long time and primarily catered to older dance enthusiasts, fled once more and vanished overnight.
Authorities said that on Sunday morning, approximately 12 hours after his rampage, he shot himself in his parked getaway vehicle, a cargo van, as police surrounded him in the town of Torrance, south of Los Angeles.
The violence on Saturday occurred during a celebration of the Chinese New Year in Monterey Park, a hub of the Asian-American community in Southern California. At first, there were concerns that the attack might have been motivated by racism. The event was postponed for the second day.
According to Hilda Solis, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, it was the deadliest mass shooting in the county’s history.
In contrast, the McDonald’s massacre of 1984 (NYSE:) claimed 21 lives. The number of people killed in a single shooting in a restaurant in San Diego is the highest ever recorded in California.
In 2015, a married couple who were described by authorities as extremists motivated by foreign terror groups murdered 14 people in San Bernardino, east of L.A. County. Hours later, they were killed in a police shootout.
The suspects’ ages in the two most recent shootings—one in his late 60s and the other in his early 70s—also stood out.
The Violence Project, a non-profit organization, maintains a database of 185 mass shootings that occurred between 1966 and 2022. Of those, only one involved a person aged 70 or older: a retired miner who killed five people in Kentucky in 1981.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told reporters on Monday that the fact that investigators obtained 42 bullet casings and a large-capacity ammunition magazine from the scene attests to the force of the attack at the Monterey Park ballroom.
He stated that a rifle, electronic devices, and items “that lead us to believe the suspect was manufacturing homemade” weapons silencers were discovered during a search of the suspect’s mobile home in a gated senior living community in the town of Hemet, which is 80 miles east of Los Angeles. Additionally, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and the suspect’s handgun were seized by police from the residence.
According to Chief Scott Wiese of the Monterey Park Police Department, investigators are looking into unconfirmed reports that the violence may have been sparked by jealousy or relationship problems.
Adam Hood, who rented a house from Tran in the Los Angeles area, told Reuters that his landlord liked to dance in the ballroom and went to the Star Ballroom on a regular basis. However, he said that other people there were talking behind his back.
“He was irate and mistrustful of the studio staff. He was distrustful. Hood stated, “I think he just had enough.”
