P
olice have described the suspect involved in a mass shooting in California as an Asian male.
A gunman opened fire at a ballroom dance club in Monterey Park, Los Angeles, following a Lunar New Year celebration.
Five women and five men were killed and another 10 injured in the attack.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a press conference that “very preliminary description” was that the suspect was an “Asian male”, but he emphasised that different descriptions had been given by witnesses and victims.
He said the current estimate for the age of suspect was between 30 and 50.
Sheriff Luna told reporters that around 30 minutes after the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park late Saturday, a man with a gun then entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra.
Sheriff Luna said it was not immediately clear whether the events are connected.
“We believe that there’s an incident that may be related,” he said of the second incident. “We’re not quire there yet, but it’s definitely on our radar screen.”
Sheriff Luna said a “male Asian suspect” entered the Alhambra club with a “firearm” and that people wrestled the gun away from him before he fled.
Investigators said they are interested in a white cargo van that was seen in the area and that police have the gun from Alhambra.
Officers declined to say what type of gun was recovered from the second dance hall, and said that investigators believe the firearm used Monterey Park was not an “assault rifle.”
Police previously said people were “pouring out of the location screaming” when officers arrived at the Monterey Park ballroom around 10:30 pm Saturday.
Officers then went into the ballroom and found victims as firefighters treated the wounded.
A police officer walks near a scene where a shooting took place in Monterey Park
/ APScreenshot from a video shows emergency responders working at the scene of a shooting
/ VIA REUTERSThe Lunar New Year celebration had attracted thousands.
Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people with a large Asian population about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from downtown Los Angeles.
Two days of festivities were planned but officials cancelled Sunday’s events following the shooting.
The tragedy marked the fifth mass shooting in the US this month and the deadliest since 21 people were killed in a school in Uvalde, Texas.
The latest violence comes two months after five people were killed at a Colorado Springs nightclub.
Seung Won Choi, who owns the Clam House seafood barbecue restaurant across the street from where the shooting happened, told The Los Angeles Times that three people rushed into his business and told him to lock the door.
The people said to Choi that there was a shooter with a gun who had multiple rounds of ammunition on him.
Wong Wei, who lives nearby, told The Los Angeles Times that his friend was in a bathroom at the dance club that night when the shooting started.
When she came out, he said, she saw a gunman and three bodies.
The celebration in Monterey Park is one of the largest Lunar New Year events in Southern California.
