(Monterey Park) In a dance hall in the suburbs of Los Angeles on Saturday, then on a farm near San Francisco on Monday: two killings in less than 48 hours left at least 18 dead in California, with the common point of origin Asian of most of the victims and the two perpetrators.
After expressing his excitement and ordering the flags to be half-masted on Sunday, President Joe Biden called for the “quick” passage of a bill that would restrict access to assault rifles.
“The scourge of gun violence in America demands stronger action,” said Joe Biden.
Visiting Monterey Park on Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom castigated the uncontrollable proliferation of guns in the United States.
“It’s a shame,” slammed the Democrat. “We should do better than that, we should lead the way for the world, not just respond to these countless crises and express, again and again and again, these damn prayers and condolences. »
“I am in the hospital to meet victims of a mass shooting when I am taken aside to inform me of another shooting. This time in Half Moon Bay. Tragedy after tragedy,” he also lamented on Twitter.
Farms and dance hall
The killing Monday in Half Moon Bay, just over 40 km from San Francisco, was committed on two farms.
The seven victims are Chinese agricultural workers and an eighth person was seriously injured, according to American media.
The suspect, a 67-year-old individual named Chunli Zhao, has been taken into custody, San Mateo County Police Chief Christina Corpus said, adding that a semi-automatic pistol was found in his vehicle. She added that he had worked on one of the two farms.
This tragedy occurred less than 48 hours after a man burst into the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, 600 kilometers further south, on Saturday evening, an establishment frequented by an Asian clientele.
The assailant fired 42 rounds there and killed 11 men and women, all over the age of 50.
After this carnage, which also left 9 injured, the shooter, Huu Can Tran, 72, had tried to continue his murderous evening in another nightclub not far from there, but had been disarmed there before fleeing and commit suicide in his van, surrounded by the police.
For the two killings, the police were still busy Tuesday to determine the motivations that prompted the perpetrators of the attacks.
“We still have no motive,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna admitted Monday at a press conference in the Monterey Park dance hall case.
Investigators are currently exploring the links between the killer and the two dance halls, in particular the relationship he had there, according to the Los Angeles Times, which cites police sources.
On Sunday, a local entrepreneur had already mentioned to AFP the track of possible jealousy to explain this massacre.
“The wife was invited to the party, but the husband couldn’t be invited,” said Chester Chong, an acquaintance of a dance hall instructor. “And the husband might be angry and jealous. »
” A shame ”
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday night that the president had been briefed on the Half Moon Bay shooting and had “asked federal law enforcement to provide any the necessary assistance to the local authorities”.
Two killings in less than 48 hours and two umpteenth gun dramas in the United States, ravaged by their violence.
About 49,000 people died from gunfire in 2021 in the United States, compared to 45,000 in 2020, already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.
However, it is the shootings with many victims that mark the spirits the most, while illustrating the ideological gap between conservatives and progressives on the question of how to prevent such tragedies.
Recent American history is indeed punctuated by killings, without any place of daily life seeming safe, from the company to the church, from the supermarket to the discotheque, from the public highway to public transport common.