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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 23 January 2023
Gunman kills 10 near Lunar New Year festival in California

By ANDREW DALTON and middle of the city, but it’s
JAE C. HONG really safe.” Wynn Liaw, 57,
Associated Press who lives about two blocks
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. from the Monterey Park stu-
(AP) — A gunman killed dio, said she was shocked
10 people at a ballroom that such a crime would
dance studio amid Lunar happen, especially during
New Year celebrations and New Year’s celebrations.
then probably tried — but “Chinese people, they
failed — to target a second consider Chinese New Year
dance hall, authorities said very, very special” — a
Sunday. An urgent search time when “you don’t do
was underway across the anything that will bring bad
Los Angeles area for the luck the entire year.”
suspect. An Associated Press/USA
LA County Sheriff Robert Today database on mass
Luna said the shooting at killings in the U.S. shows that
the Star Ballroom Dance This combination image created using photos provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s 2022 was one of the na-
Studio in Monterey Park left Department shows a male suspect allegedly involved in a shooting on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023, in tion’s worst years in terms
five women and five men Monterey Park, Calif. of mass killings, with 42 such
dead and wounded an- Associated Press attacks — the second-
other 10 people. Then 20 dition, but we’re going to sent a wave of fear through near a large banner that highest number since the
to 30 minutes later, a man handle that in safest man- Asian American communi- proclaimed “Happy Year creation of the tracker in
with a gun entered the Lai ner that we possibly can ties in the Los Angeles area of the Rabbit!” 2006. The database defines
Lai Ballroom in nearby Al- and try and identify that and cast a shadow over The celebration in Mon- a mass killing as four peo-
hambra. person. Could it be our sus- Lunar New Year festivities terey Park is one of Califor- ple killed not including the
Authorities believe the two pect? Possibly,” Luna said. around the country. Other nia’s largest and had at- perpetrator.
events are connected. In response to a question, cities sent extra officers to tracted tens of thousands The latest violence comes
They offered no details Luna said it was possible watch over the celebra- throughout the day. two months after five peo-
about a possible motive. that the person barricaded tions. Two days of festivities, ple were killed at a Colo-
The suspect in both cases in van is dead. The massacre was the na- which have been attend- rado Springs nightclub.
was described as an Asian Authorities said Sunday tion’s fifth mass killing this ed by as many as 100,000 President Joe Biden and
male. He entered the Al- they know the suspect’s month. It was also the people in past years, were Attorney General Merrick
hambra club with a gun, name but declined to re- deadliest attack since May planned. But officials can- Garland were briefed on
and people wrestled the lease it because it could 24, when 21 people were celed Sunday’s events fol- the situation, aides said.
weapon away from him complicate their ability to killed in an elementary lowing the shooting. The shooting occurred at
before he fled, Luna said. apprehend him. But they school in Uvalde, Texas. Tony Lai, 35, of Monterey Star Ballroom Dance Stu-
By midday, police in tacti- did release a photo show- Monterey Park is a city of Park was stunned when dio, a few blocks from city
cal vehicles and bomb- ing an Asian man wearing about 60,000 people on he came out for his early hall on Monterey Park’s
squad trucks surrounded a glasses and a winter hat. the eastern edge of Los morning walk to learn that main thoroughfare of Gar-
white van in a parking lot. The image was taken from Angeles and is composed the noises he heard in the vey Avenue, which is dot-
Hours earlier, Luna said au- the attempted shooting in mostly of Asian immigrants night were gunshots. ted with strip malls of small
thorities were looking for a Alhambra. from China or first-gener- “I thought maybe it was businesses whose signs are
white van after witnesses The sheriff declined to say ation Asian Americans. fireworks. I thought maybe in both English and Chi-
reported seeing the sus- what type of gun was re- The shooting happened in it had something to do with nese. Cantonese and Man-
pect flee from Alhambra in covered in Alhambra. He the heart of its downtown Lunar New Year,” he said. darin are both widely spo-
such a vehicle. said investigators believe where red lanterns deco- “And we don’t even get ken, Chinese holidays are
“We believe there is a per- the gun used in Monterey rated the streets for the a lot of fireworks here. It’s celebrated, and Chinese
son inside of that vehicle. Park was not an assault rifle. Lunar New Year festivities. weird to see this. It’s really films are screened regularly
We don’t know their con- The shooting and manhunt A police car was parked safe here. We’re right in the in the city.q

Washington county mistakenly releases 460,000 partial SSNs

Associated Press have taken steps to ensure it does not hap- spread dissemination of information and no
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A county in Wash- pen again.” retention or copying of the information by
ington inadvertently released nearly half a The Social Security number information was the requester,” Stevens saiid. “We encourage
million partial Social Security Numbers when included in a routine request for publicly avail- you, as always, to remain vigilant and moni-
responding to a routine public records request able voter registration data, which typically tor your account statements, insurance trans-
in December, according to county officials. includes names, addresses and birth dates. actions, and free credit reports for potential
The Pierce County Auditor’s Office, which mis- Personally identifiable information, including fraud and identity theft, and promptly report
takenly released the sensitive data, said in a Social Security number information, which any concerns.”
news release that the human error was quick- can be used to commit identify theft, is ex- In response to question from the The News Tri-
ly spotted and that the person who received empt from public disclosure. bune, spokesperson for Pierce County Libby
the SSN digits deleted them within two hours. In a Jan. 17 letter sent to the 463,110 voters Catalinich said the county is requiring infor-
The requester had not asked for the personal affected, Whitney Stevens, the public records mation to be reviewed by a second employ-
information. officer for the auditor’s office, apologized and ee before it is released to the public.
“First let me say that I am incredibly sorry that outlined steps those impacted can take to Catalinich did not immediately respond to
this happened,” Pierce County Auditor Linda protect their private information and monitor a request for comment from The Associated
Farmer said in statement. Farmer added that for fraud. Press.q
this was not a targeted hack, and that “we “We have confirmed that there was no wide-