(Trends Wide Spanish) — Mass shootings in the United States do not let up. In the last hours, California was shaken by the news of at least three mass shootings that have left several dead and injured, a tragedy that increasingly highlights the serious problem of weapons in a nation that refuses to legislate on its control.
“Tragedy after tragedy” said California Governor Gavin Newsomabout one of the mass shootings that devastated his state in recent hours, and stated that the Second Amendment, which gives Americans the right to bear arms, is a “suicide pact.”
So far this year there have been more shootings in the United States than days counted on the calendar. According to the Gun Violence Archive, in the first 23 days of 2023, 39 shootings have been recorded, counting up to the one that occurred on Monday night in Oakland.
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, on January 22, 2023. (Credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Like Trends Wide, the Archive of Gun Violence considers a mass shooting to be an incident in which at least four victims are shot — either wounded or killed — not including the shooter.
This is an account of the three days of terror that the state of California has experienced due to armed violence, which has left dozens of families devastated and a nation in mourning for the violence.
Monterey Park, 11 dead, 9 injured
What began as a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park ended with collective mourning for a massacre that left at least 11 dead and nine injured, when Huu Can Tran, a 72-year-old man, entered a dance hall and unleashed a barrage of shots leaving “extensive” carnage and chaos in its wake as people fled the building with the dead and wounded still inside.
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Tran then proceeded to another ballroom in the neighboring Alhambra, but there two people disarmed him and took a “magazine-fed semi-automatic assault pistol” that had high damage output.
The man fled and was searched for all day and night, until the next day, Sunday, a van in which he was moving was found in the parking lot of a shopping center. The police approached and before they could stop him, they heard a shot from inside the van. When they cleared the area, Tran was dead.
Inside the van, investigators found “various evidence” linking Tran to the Monterey Park and Alhambra dance studios, and was also reportedly carrying a Cobray M11 9mm semi-automatic weapon.
The reasons are still under investigation.
Half Moon Bay — 7 dead and one injured
The second of the shootings occurred in two separate events in the town of Half Moon Bay, a small coastal community in central California, which San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus called “a devastating tragedy” and a ” unspeakable act of violence”.
The first event occurred around 2:22 pm local time, when authorities received an alert of a shooting in an unincorporated area of San Mateo. Four dead people were found there. Shortly after, three other fatalities were found in a different place.
One of the shootings occurred at a mushroom farm and another near a trucking facility about 2 miles from the farm, Dave Pine, chairman of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, told Trends Wide.
Hours later, authorities tracked down a suspect, whom they identified as 67-year-old Chunli Zhao. The man, an Asian American, was taken into custody more than two hours after the shooting, according to Corpus. According to two sources with knowledge of the information, he turned himself in on Monday night.
Authorities believe Zhao acted alone, and Corpus said the motive was unknown as of Monday night and there is no threat to the community.
The mushroom farm owners said they were “shocked” by the killings and had no prior knowledge of the attacker or his motives.
“With no prior knowledge of this gunman or his motives, we are shocked and very eager for more information from authorities and their investigations,” Concord Farms said in a statement to Trends Wide. “Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and the Chinese-American community, from Half Moon Bay to Monterey Park.”
In the statement, Concord Farms said it is a family-owned and operated mushroom farm that has been at its location for 37 years and appreciated the community’s support in the wake of the shooting and quick actions by law enforcement.
Oakland — 1 dead, 7 injured
With the country barely reeling from two mass shootings just hours earlier, a shooting in Oakland, California, a few miles from Half Moon Bay, grabbed everyone’s attention when it was reported that one person was killed and seven more injured in a shootout. occurred in the 5900 block of Macarthur Boulevard shortly after 6:00 p.m. local time.
When the officials arrived at the scene of the shooting, they found “several shell casings” but no victims, the Police reported, and according to the investigation, the agents learned that there was a shooting between several people.
It was the hospitals that began to alert about several injured who arrived by themselves to receive treatment and later a fatality was reported, which was not identified until early Tuesday.
The investigations continue.
Another shooting leaves two dead in Iowa
The incidents that occurred during three days of violence in California were not the only ones that shook the United States, a country that suffers from the epidemic of gun violence. As the news from California captured the nation’s attention, another deadly shooting was rocking the country.
Police are investigating the shooting that left two dead on January 1. February 23, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)
Authorities arrested a man Monday following a shooting at an educational program for at-risk youth in Des Moines, Iowa. Two students were killed in the shooting and the program’s founder was seriously injured, authorities said in a statement.
Des Moines police found the victims of the shooting and the suspected shooter was identified as 18-year-old Preston Walls, charged with two counts of intentional homicide, attempted homicide and criminal gang involvement, police said in an updated statement. .
The shooting occurred after the suspect, who had a 9mm pistol with an extended ammunition magazine, “entered a common area where all three victims were located,” the police statement said.
“Walls, and both deceased victims, are known gang members, belonging to opposing gangs, and the evidence indicates that these crimes were committed as a result of an ongoing gang dispute,” police said in a statement. Des Moines police did not provide further details outlining these allegations.
Police said Walls cut off a court-ordered GPS ankle monitor about 16 minutes before the shooting.
Trends Wide has not been able to determine if Walls has retained legal counsel at this time.
Police did not identify the injured person, but Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie said it was Starts Right Here program president and R&B hip hop artist Will Holmes, also known as “Will Keeps.” Police said he was in serious condition.
Holmes “attempted to escort Walls out of the area. Walls turned away from Holmes, drew his pistol, and began shooting at the two teenage victims. Holmes was standing nearby and was also shot. Walls then fled the scene on foot,” the statement said.
According to the Gun Violence Record, as of January 23, 2023, the United States records 1,173 gun violence deaths, more than 2,000 injuries, 92 unintentional shootings, and at least 1,518 firearm suicides.
— With reporting from Trends Wide’s Andi Babineau, Kara Devlin, Elizabeth Wolfe, Sean Federico-O’Murchu, Chris Boyette, Joe Sutton, Theresa Waldrop and Aya Elamroussi.
