California was shocked by two terrible mass shootings.
24 January, Monterey Park, California (Reuters) - California had one of its bloodiest waves of mass gun violence in decades just two days after a shooter killed 11 people at a dance studio in the Los Angeles area. Seven more people were shot dead in a beach hamlet close to San Francisco.
The motive for any of the rampages, according to the authorities, has not been determined. The attacks appeared particularly puzzling in part because the suspects in each were men in their retirement years, significantly older than the average gunman who committed the horrific mass shootings that have grown commonplace in the United States.
The news of the deaths on Monday reached California Governor Gavin Newsom when he was visiting wounded victims of the shooting that occurred on Saturday night in the Monterey Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Newsom posted on Twitter, "Tragedy upon tragedy."
About 30 miles south of San Francisco, in a town noted for its surfing beaches and farmland, Half Moon Bay, the most recent shooting occurred. A shooter there opened fire on farm laborers at two places a mile apart on Monday, leaving seven people dead and one injured before fleeing. As of Tuesday morning, the authorities had not provided any victims' information.
The alleged shooter, named as Chunli Zhao, 67, was subsequently apprehended after being discovered in his car, parked outside a sheriff's office, where investigators claim he had come to surrender.
He had a semi-automatic weapon in his car, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus announced at a news conference that evening.
The suspect, who Corpus said was "completely cooperating" with detectives after his detention, had worked at one of the two crime locations. Some of the workers also lived at the locations, which she described as agricultural "nurseries." One place was a mushroom farm, according to the local newspaper.
The shooting in Half Moon Bay had been conveyed to President Joe Biden, who stated in a statement on Tuesday that he had instructed his government to assist local law enforcement.
"Even as we await further information on these shootings, we know the pandemic of gun violence across America requires tougher action," he added, urging Congress to reinstate a nationwide assault weapons prohibition.
Detectives were still looking into the Saturday night shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, just east of downtown Los Angeles, where a shooter killed 11 people and injured nine others when news of the tragedy broke.
The operator of the club stopped the suspect, Hou Kan Tran, 72, and pulled the gun away before he could go to a second dance floor adjacent, according to the authorities.
Longtime Star Ballroom customer Tran flees in a white cargo van. About 12 hours later, when police approached him in Torrance, south Los Angeles, he shot himself.