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10 people have been killed in a shooting near LA after a Lunar New Year festival

Police gather at the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, Calif., over the weekend.
Frederic J. Brown
/
AFP via Getty Images
Police gather at the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, Calif., over the weekend.

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Updated January 22, 2023 at 8:00 AM ET

At least 10 people were killed and 10 others were wounded in a shooting Saturday evening in a city east of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.

The gunfire was reported around 10:22 p.m. local time inside a Chinese-owned ballroom dance studio on West Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park.

Local police arrived to find "individuals pouring out of the location," LA County Sheriff's Department's Captain Andrew Meyer said in a news conference on Sunday early morning.

At least 10 people were taken to area hospitals with conditions ranging from stable to critical.

Local authorities are looking for a man who fled after the shooting. Police are also investigating a possible second scene in Alhambra, about two miles north of Monterey Park.

Meyer did not give further details about the shooter or possible motive. He added that it was unclear whether the shooting was a targeted hate crime.

The FBI and state authorities are also involved in the investigation.

Over 59,000 people live in Monterey Park, 65 percent of whom identify as Asian, according to the Census Bureau.

The attack occurred at the end of the first day of a two-day street festival to celebrate Lunar New Year. The event, which began on the eve of Lunar New Year, is one of the largest free street fairs in Southern California, typically drawing crowds of over 100,000 visitors and over a hundred food vendors, performances and merchants.

Monterey Park Police said the festival has been canceled because of the shooting.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Juliana Kim
Juliana Kim is a weekend reporter for Digital News, where she adds context to the news of the day and brings her enterprise skills to NPR's signature journalism.