Manhunt underway to search out gunman who killed 10 in California massacre

First of all, thank you for your patience. I know it took us a little bit to get out here, but we're doing a lot of very important work behind the scenes It's gives me a great sadness to be standing before you to report such devastating news.

Never easy to do something like this because it's absolutely heartbreaking. And our thoughts, condolences and prayers go out not only to the victims, their family, But this Monterey Park community and really the entire community, because I think we're all going to be hurting based on this this tragedy.

On Saturday January 21st 2023 at approximately 10:22 p.m.. Officers from the Monterey Monterey Park Police Department responded to a business in the 100 block of West Garvey Avenue in the city of Monterey Park regarding a shots fired call.

When officers arrived at the location. They observed numerous victims and patrons in the business parking lot. Additional officers made entry into the business and located numerous gunshot victims. Monterey Park Fire Department responded to the scene and started to treat the injured.

And I do want to point out these police officers that get there, they don't hesitate. They go in right away. And then our partners at the fire department and not only the Monterey Park Fire Department, but many others who came to assist.

The victims, survivors who needed assistance. They were at least ten additional victims transported to numerous local hospitals But I do want to start off with saying that, unfortunately, when the fire department did get into the business, they did pronounced.

Ten of the victims deceased. At the scene that I just described. But the ten additional victims were transported to numerous local hospitals. They are listed in various conditions from stable to critical condition There is a male suspect.

That fled the scene and remains outstanding. As of this moment, our very preliminary description has been described as a male Asian and that's from the scene here in Monterrey Park. And it's taken us a while and please be patient with us.

Because as we're interviewing victims and witnesses, we've gotten different descriptions of one suspect. So when I say this preliminary please, again, be patient with us. We are here to tell you that we are utilizing every resource to apprehend this suspect. And what we believe.

To be one of the county's most heinous cases. Our local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are working together to better serve the residents here of Los Angeles County and to apprehend this attacker. Sheriff's homicide investigators.

Are working diligently with the Monterrey Park Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, and numerous other law enforcement agencies Bottom line is here,.

We're going to use every resource available to us because we need to get this person off the street as soon as possible. But again, we are still in the very early stages of this investigation. And there's probably there.

Actually is a lot more that we don't know then what we know at this time. A couple of things we're going to correct. That's correct. And then I just need to clarify something. The supervisor.

Just implied that this was you know, that these hate crimes have to stop. So this is not a hate crime. Everything's on the table. We don't know if this is specifically a hate crime defined by law. But who walks into a dance hall.

And guns down? 20 people. The description we have now is of a male Asian Does that matter? I don't know. I can tell you that everything's on the table. Our detectives are looking.

At every possibility with our partners age range, somewhere between the age of 30 and 50. There is a wide range, and those are things that are detectives. As we're sitting here now, for the last several hours. And they we have several homicide teams.

Working here. It's amazing when you can pick up the phone. And I have other agencies come in. What can we do to help? We want this guy off the street. So we're working very hard and we're hoping actually we will should be putting out.

A better description here in the next several hours on the scene. The actual scene, I have not I've been at the crime scene, but not the actual shooting scene based on the scene you are in after this based on the location of the bodies, since it looks like there was an intentional direction.

That the shooter was aimed at or does it look like it was random across the board? Those are questions that we will be able to answer, just not at this time. You know, you've ammunition and weapons used potentially any description of that.

And can you please also describe what other incidents you are trying to investigate to find there? Possible connection to this, including one in November? Yes. So let me start off with the last question.

Regarding the city of Alhambra. We are working diligently with the Alhambra Police Department. We believe that there is an incident that may be related. We're not quite there yet, but it's it's.

Definitely on our radar screen where a male Asian suspect walked into a dance hall and he walked in there with a firearm. And some individuals wrestled the firearm away from him. And the that individual took off.

Now, some witnesses in that area are describing a white cargo van. We don't know, though, at this time if it is connected. That white man should be considered a man of interest at this point. Again, detectives looking at multiple locations, multiple clues.

And I know how hard they're working in regards to the firearm Obviously, there were multiple rounds fired at the first location where we have all the victims and survivors. We don't know how many rounds were fired. Different weapons have been described in regards to the specific weapon.

We don't believe it was an assault rifle at this time. But again, that's part of the investigation that we're looking at. Just just to make sure and I don't want to put out bad information without giving us things.

That you cannot tell us. Do you have things solid leads right now which are possibly connecting you to this gunman right now? I know you could not give us details of them. Do you have some solid leads which give you proof that you're going to find this person?.

I alw ays have hope. And we have amazing detectives out here. The resources that they have are utilizing out here. There are multiple leads that we are following. But please keep in mind our priority here is obviously we get to the victims,.

We get to the survivors. We're going to wrap our arms around the families. But the next top priority is to arrest the person who did this, charge them and get them prosecuted to the full extent of the law, no matter what the intent, motive or anything once so.

That the suspect knew anyone inside that van. That's always a possibility. Again, very early on in this investigation. That's a possibility. When you're a good detective, you don't take anything off the table. Everything's a possibility.

And that could be one of them. Has anyone said that in either of these two places, we think we know the person. We are still in the process of interviewing dozens of witnesses And I'm not going to get into detail yet about what they said. Look at how many.

Cameras are in front of me. Suspect could be watching right now. The Alhambra incident. Is there a weapon? If he was disarmed, do you have a weapon? That is what we do. Any. Tell us what it is. Not at this time. I think that could be your weapon.

From the crime here. It absolutely could be. We don't know yet. The victims as far as their age range, gender, race, in regards to the ten deceased victims. My understanding we have five females and five males in regards to their specific ages.

We have not been able to identify any of them yet. We will do that with our partners at the coroner's office. When the time comes I want to see it happen within 20 to 30 minutes.

Of the first incident that we're here discussing It happened after the Monterey Park incident. How many people were inside the dance hall in Miami Park? I don't have that information, but there were there were dozens of people in there.

Shelter in place for shelter in place, order for the community. We don't believe that's necessary at this time, but we will consistently evaluate that. And if we believe that there's an absolute danger to the public,.

We're going to take every precaution necessary. We have a lot of resources out all over the place and I don't think we're there yet, but it's always an option in the toolbox. We're all the victims as far as you know, of the people who were killed,.

The people who were wounded. We don't have that specific information yet because we have not identified them yet. But the assumption is that probably. Yes, but dead or injured. No, no. Anything. I'm sorry.

You don't think about the event was advertised. Was it was there music? I don't want anything about whatever you know about that. I don't have that specific information, but we'll put that out later. You're safe to say that your teams are scouring video right now,.

Getting them running away. Our teams are doing a lot of things right now. That's one of many. Sure. Can you talk about the time frame here when the call came in? How long it took for officers to get to the scene?.

When they went in? And how much time did this guy have to exit the area? Chief Weiss, if you want to talk about the initial response to the scene. Thank you. So we received 911 calls.

Starting at 1022 in the evening. The incident, as you all know, is very close to the police station. We were just wrapping up the final shut down of the Lunar New Year that I had dozens of officers here throughout the day in the evening at the Lunar New Year event.

So our response to the scene was within minutes. I don't have the exact time The initial officers that responded, I saw dozens of people exiting. Some were injured, some weren't. And we handled them as they came out. We began to triage that. And my officers put together a React team.

And went inside to see if the suspect was still inside. They were probably entering that business within a minute or two of responding. And that's how we've been trained. And that's how we respond to situations like this. And I want to address the shelter in place.

We have a very tight community here. They share information with us. And our partnership with our community is very, very strong. We've put out information to them about their safety and we welcome their questions to us. I have dozens of officers.

Here on the street today, not just from my agency, from agencies all over both local, county, state and federal. This is a safe community right now. But we're going to continue to be vigilant until we take this suspect into custody wherever they are.

Can you speak to the possibility of this being a result of a domestic dispute between a husband and wife? That's all part of the investigation. Everything's on the table. And the more people you talk to, the more information we get and our detectives actives are amazing. And, well, we'll get that time frame.

Between the Monterey Park and the Alhambra Yeah. What time was the incident in Alhambra to get a better idea? This was ten. 22 in Monterey Park that lasted a little while. You said.

20 minutes to get to the Alhambra comes back. So if we're looking at the Alhambra incident, approximately 1022 and from the information preliminarily that we have now, we're talking about between 17 minutes.

And 20 minutes later, the Alhambra incident occurs first. Yes, sir. Monterey Park unfortunately occurred first. Also, the caliber of the weapon that you recovered, Prescott may have been involved.

In some way, apart from the Alhambra and Monterey Park incident in Monterrey Park, and that there was also a restaurant here beside you clarified Yeah, I don't have information about that at this time. Maybe that's just some new detail.

That's coming up that's out there. We'll clarify that didn't happen. Didn't I don't have the business. Is the microphone. Well, I'm just going to say something. Yeah.

Can we pause on that? On the name of the business? Just out of respect for the business owners and the victims and survivors. And then we'll work on you as soon as we can get that out. And I heard the question over here to my right about caliber.

Recovered fourth of rounds are consistent with the weapon recovered. That still we're still looking at that. And I would prefer not to put the caliber up at this second just because it's going. It may hinder what we're trying to do. And again, remember, our priority is.

We got to get this guy in custody.

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