Vice President Kamala Harris has made a statement after ten people were killed in the Monterey Park shooting in near Los Angeles. Ms Harris, who was previously the junior senator for Califonia, has called for the “senseless gun violence” in the US to stop.
The Vice President made a statement on the Monterey Park shooting while in Flordia before giving a speech on abortion rights.
Kamala Harris said: “A time of a cultural celebration and yet another community has been torn apart by senseless gun violence.”
She added: “All of us in this room and in our country understand this violence must stop – and President Biden and I will continue to provide full support to the local authorities as we learn more.”
Ms Harris said she and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, alongside President Joe Biden and the First Lady, Jill Biden, were “in mourning for those who were killed, as we pray for those who were injured and as we grieve for those many people whose lives are forever changed”.
On Saturday evening, at least ten people were killed and ten more were injured at a dance hall in Monterey Park on the eve of the Lunar New Year.
The shooter entered another dance venue nearby in Alhambra, California but people at the second celebration were able to wrestle the gun away and the suspected gunman fled.
Police have now identified the suspect as Huu Can Tran, a 72-year-old Asian male who shot and killed himself inside a van as police officers approached it.
LA County Sheriff Robert Luna has confirmed that detectives are currently investigating the suspect’s mental health and criminal history in order to discover a motive.
He said: “Those are all things detectives will take a very hard look at.”
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Lunar New Year fell on January 22, and the population of Monterey Park is around 60,000, with 65 percent of the population being Asian.
Some Lunar New Year celebrations were cancelled throughout the US due to the shooting, while some cities, such as the Californian cities of Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, and Westminster, chose to continue celebrations with heightened security.
On Twitter, Canadian leader Justin Trudeau said his “heart breaks” for the people “whose Lunar New Year celebrations were violently attacked and whose lives have been forever changed”.
Simu Liu, the first Asian superhero in the Marvel cinematic universe, said he was “shocked, saddened, angered, and heartbroken for the families who have been affected tonight” and also pledged to give to the fundraisers for the victims affected in the shooting.
