US van standoff ends as police hunt California mass shooter

California police searching the gunman who killed 10 individuals at a dance membership throughout Lunar New Year celebrations have damaged right into a van after a prolonged standoff, the place pictures confirmed a physique slumped within the driver’s seat.

The hunt started 12 hours earlier on Sunday after a person – described by police as Asian – started firing at a membership in Monterey Park, a metropolis in Los Angeles County with a big Asian group.

Witnesses mentioned he had fired indiscriminately, and gave the impression to be closely armed.

At least 10 different individuals have been wounded, a few of them critically.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna mentioned police responded to emergency calls simply after 10pm Saturday (0600 GMT Sunday) and located individuals pouring out of the premises.

“Unfortunately,” he added, paramedics “did pronounce 10 of the victims deceased at the scene.”

Five of the useless have been girls and 5 males, officers mentioned, with out offering ages or names.

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Second incident

Luna additionally described a second incident in close by Alhambra some 20 minutes later, through which an Asian man carrying a gun walked right into a dance studio however was tackled and disarmed. The man fled and no accidents have been reported.

Alhambra is about two miles (three kilometres) north of Monterey Park. Luna mentioned investigators have been probing whether or not the incidents have been associated.

The police stand-off round a van started late Sunday morning in Torrance, south of Los Angeles, with the Los Angeles Times reporting photographs had been fired on the scene.

It culminated with heavily-armed officers, supported by armoured automobiles, swarming the white panel van, smashing the passenger aspect window with their weapons raised.

AFP images from the scene taken after he operation present the physique of a person within the driver’s seat.

The Times, citing legislation enforcement sources, mentioned the person had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

There was no quick affirmation from police, and Luna earlier would solely verify {that a} “tactical incident” was underneath manner.

“Could it be our suspect? Possibly,” he mentioned.

Photos launched by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department of their key suspect confirmed an Asian man carrying a beanie hat and glasses.

‘Year of the rabbit’

Monterey Park, only some miles from downtown Los Angeles, is residence to round 60,000 individuals, the vast majority of them Asian or Asian American.

“We don’t know if this is specifically a hate crime defined by law,” Luna mentioned, “but who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?”

Sheriff’s deputies in Monterey Park remained on the scene, an AFP reporter mentioned, with decorations erected for the Lunar New Year hanging incongruously by the police tape.

A banner above the road learn “Happy Year of the Rabbit.”

Gun violence is a big drawback within the United States, which final yr noticed 647 mass shootings, with at the very least 4 individuals shot or killed by a shooter, based on the Gun Violence Archive web site.

In addition to the California capturing, 12 extra individuals have been injured in a capturing at a nightclub in a single day in Louisiana, native media reported.

More than 44,000 individuals died from gunshot wounds in 2022 throughout the United States, greater than half of which have been suicides.

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Source: TRTWorld and businesses