What We Know About the Mass Shooting Near LA

Police searching for the man who carried out a mass shooting Saturday night near Los Angeles surrounded a white van Sunday afternoon and said they found the driver dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot. Witnesses had said the Monterey Park shooter fled in a white van, and police had said that's what they were looking for, the Los Angeles Times reports. A SWAT team encircled the vehicle in a store parking lot in Torrance. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna would not say whether he was the man officers were looking for. "Could it be our suspect? Possibly," Luna said.

Coverage:

• Where: The shooting took place about 10:30pm in the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, about 10 miles from Los Angeles, reports CNN. Monterey Park has a heavy Asian population, accounting for roughly 65% of the city's 61,000 residents, per the Times. It's sometimes called the "first suburban Chinatown," per the New York Times.
• Victims: Ten people were pronounced dead at the scene—five men and five women—and 10 wounded people were brought to hospitals, some of them in critical condition, per the AP. No other information about the victims was released.
• Second incident: Police were investigating a second incident Saturday night at another ballroom in nearby Alhambra in which patrons fought off a gunman. Police suspect but have not confirmed a connection, per the AP. The Alhambra incident occurred about 20 minutes after the one in Monterey Park.

• Gunman/motive: The suspect in both incidents has been described as an Asian male. Authorities are "looking into every aspect of this," said Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Tracy Koerner, but they have not speculated about a motive, per the Washington Post.
• Lunar New Year: The shooting took place on Lunar New Year's Eve, a major celebration in Asian communities around the US. The dance studio is located on West Garvey Avenue, a main road that had hosted a lunar festival earlier in the day. Sunday's events have been canceled, per CNN.
• Scene: "When officers arrived on scene, they observed numerous individuals, patrons ... pouring out of the location, screaming," said Capt. Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The owner of a nearby seafood restaurant tells the LA Times that people rushed into his store and told him to lock the door because a man with a semiautomatic weapon was firing. Police have not described the weapon used.
• Biden: President Biden has been briefed on the shooting by the Homeland Security chief, tweeted press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. The FBI has joined the investigation.

This summary has been updated throughout with new details. (More Monterey Park shooting stories.)