Casualties found after shooting at Monterey Park

Police were responding to reports of a shooting that left multiple casualties in Monterey Park on Saturday night, according to a law enforcement source.

The number of casuInternal police communications said there had been some fatalities. The shooting took place sometime after 10 p.m. near the site of a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration. Tens of thousands had gathered Saturday for the start of a two-day festival, one of the largest Lunar New Year events in the region.

Earlier in the day, crowds were enjoying skewers and shopping for Chinese food and jewelry. Saturday’s Lunar New Festival hours were scheduled from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

John, 27, who declined to give his last name, lives near the shooting site. He got home around 10 p.m. and heard about 4-5 gunshots. Then, he heard police cruisers “smashing” down the street. He went downstairs at around 11:20 p.m. to see if the shooting occurred at the Lunar New Year festival.

“My first concern was I know they’re having a Lunar New Year celebration,” he said. But according to him, the festival had already been cleaned up for the day when he arrived. He went to the scene of the shooting and saw one person being put on a stretcher. Another person had a bandage on their arm.

Seung Won Choi, who owns the Clam House seafood barbecue restaurant across the street from where the shooting happened, said three people rushed into his restaurant and told Choi to lock the door. The people told him that there was a man with a machine gun in the area.

Choi said he believes the shooting took place at a dancing club in the area. Video on social media showed police and fire units swarming an area on Garvey Avenue and treating victims. Injured people were taken to multiple hospitals in the area.

SkyNews/S.O