The 33rd Shooting This Year.

News | Konor Nichols | January 25th, 2023.

The Lunar New Year is usually a time of celebration for Asian/Pacific American families around the country. Still, on Saturday, January 21, 2023, the 33rd shooting this year broke out at a large Lunar New Year Celebration.

Monterey Park has historically been home to many Asian Americans, being the very first American city on the continent to have an Asian population majority. As of the 2020 Census, 65% of Monterey Park’s residents were Asian, with deep ties to the city and its rich cultures.

On Saturday, an estimated 100,000 people took part in the annual Lunar New Year celebration when a suspect shot 17 elderly individuals, 10 of which died and 7 of which were hospitalized. With fear spreading through the community, Sunday’s celebrations were put on hold as police began searching for the suspect. Sunday morning, officials found the body of the perpetrator dead in his van from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, with a semi-automatic pistol and a second handgun.

With Monterey Park and Asian-American communities left grieving, numerous organizations released statements about the significance of this tragedy. The CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Southern California expressed: “Having this tragedy on one of our most important holidays … it feels very personal to our community…There is still that feeling of being targeted, and being fearful, when we hear about a shooting like this,” prompting police around the country to step up security measures at various festival locations.