California Shootings Come After Spike in Asian Americans Buying Guns

Two shootings that authorities say were carried out by elderly Asian men follow a spike in Asian Americans buying guns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This past Saturday night in Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian American city in California, the first Lunar New Year celebration since the pandemic began was kicking off when a gunman entered a ballroom dance hall and opened fire, killing 11 and injuring several more.

The suspect, Huu Can Tran, 72, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police closed in on his white van the following day, authorities said.

As that community began mourning, another mass shooting left seven people dead at two landscaping nurseries in the California city of Half Moon Bay on Monday afternoon. Officers arrested a suspect, 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, after they found him in his car in the parking lot of a sheriff's substation. The victims reportedly were Chinese and Latino farmworkers.