AFP
Grief grips Asian Americans after mass murders in California
Asian Americans were stunned Tuesday after two mass shootings targeting members of their community in California left 18 people dead — in both cases, the alleged gunmen were elderly men of Asian descent. The murders came in just 48 hours — it was so close that California governor Gavin Newsom was at a hospital meeting with the victims of the first when he pulled over to inquire about the second. “Tragedy after tragedy,” he tweeted. Hours later came the news of another shooting in Washington state. The gunman killed three people in a convenience store in an action that police said appeared to be random. The massacre prompted President Joe Biden to renew calls for Congress to take swift action on the offensive weapons ban. A group of senators on Monday reinstated the federal assault weapons ban and law that raised the minimum purchase age for assault weapons to 21. China’s foreign ministry urged its citizens in the United States to “pay close attention to the local security situation” and “where people gather in the wake of the killings”. Avoid going places”. Investigators say that gun violence is rare in America, both for affected communities and generally among Asians and Asian Americans — and according to the suspects, aged 67 and 72. Project Neutral Violence, mass murder between 1966-2020 He says 79 percent of those who do are under the age of 45. Only 6.4 percent says most of the mass murderers at the time were Asian. Monday’s bloodshed occurred at two farms around Half Moon Bay, a rural coastal community south of San Francisco. Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said on Tuesday x men and one woman – a mix of Hispanic and Asian – was killed and 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, a resident of Half Moon Bay, was detained. A semi-automatic pistol was recovered. “The connection between the victims and the suspect may be that they were co-workers,” he said. “All the evidence we have points to this as an example of workplace violence.” He was arrested in the parking lot of a sheriff’s station in Half Moon Bay, where ABC7 crews captured dramatic footage of him being pulled to the ground by armed officers. Huu Can Tran, 72, shot and killed 11 people who had gathered at a suburban dance hall for the Lunar New Year Saturday night. He then went to a second dance hall nearby, but was intervened by an employee there and disarmed by the authorities. earned a reputation for saving lives. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Tran, who was arrested decades ago for illegal possession of a firearm, fired 42 shots in the attack in Monterey Park. “What drives a madman to do this?” Luna confirmed that officers were told that Tran may have been known to some of his victims. Information about Tran remains unclear. CNN reported that she immigrated from China according to her marriage certificate; The New York Times quoted from his immigration papers that he was a naturalized US citizen of Vietnamese descent, while an old friend described Tran as a vindictive, loner. The second word is hate. He hates the people around him, especially if he thinks someone is mistreating him,” said his friend, according to the Los Angeles Times. Even take revenge. The family of one of his victims, My Nhan, 65, said the tragedy “still had an impact”. She spent her time going to the dance studio in Monterey Park.” she loved to do it, but unfairly Saturday was her last dance.” bur-hg/st