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A shooting at a Presbyterian church in Laguna Woods, in California’s Orange County, 80 kilometers from Los Angeles, has caused one death and four seriously injured, according to local authorities. A fifth person has also been slightly injured after the incident, recorded minutes before 1:30 p.m. (local time). “Agents are responding to an emergency call inside the church,” reported the police office, which has confirmed the arrest of a 68-year-old man as the main suspect and the seizure of a weapon, of which unknown type or caliber. The incident comes a day after an 18-year-old white man opened fire in a Buffalo supermarket killing 10 people, mainly African-Americans, in what is considered a racist attack.
All the victims of the California shooting are adults. Their ages have not been specified. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office interviewed just over 30 people this afternoon from a Taiwanese congregation that was inside the temple at the time of the shooting. The church had celebrated a mass shortly before when several detonations were heard, according to the versions of witnesses collected by the newspaper. Los Angeles Times. The attack occurred in Laguna Woods, a south county town of 18,000, an upper-middle-class enclave in southeastern California.
Agents present at the temple located on El Toro Street arrested one suspect, an Asian man originally from Las Vegas. The reasons that led him to open fire or if it was known within the congregation have not been reported. In that part of Laguna Woods there are temples of different denominations: Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, as well as a synagogue. The sheriff will offer a press conference this afternoon to give more information. The authorities have told the Associated Press that the investigation does not rule out that it was a hate crime, like the one that shook the United States on Saturday afternoon.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that his government is closely following the incident and that state authorities have come to support local ones. Agents from the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Weapons, have also appeared at the scene to collaborate with the information. “No one should be afraid in the place where they profess their faith. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and the community,” Governor Newsom wrote on Twitter.
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