The Monterey Park Lunar New Years Mass Casualty Shooting
On January 21, 2023, at approximately 10:22 p.m. PST, a gunman entered the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California and opened fire, killing ten innocent victims and injuring ten others who were gathered to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Following the incident, the gunman traveled to the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in nearby Alhambra, California, where he attempted to shoot additional partygoers but was disarmed and fled the scene. On January 22, police located the gunman in a white panel van in a parking lot in Torrance, California, and found him deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Victims
The ten victims who lost their lives in the shooting were identified as Valentino Marcos Alvero, 68, Hongying Jian, 62, Yu Lun Kao, 72, Lilan Li, 63, Ming Wei Ma, 72, My My Nhan, 65, Muoi Dai Ung, 67, Chia Ling Yau, 76, Wen Tau Yu, 64, and Xiujuan Yu, 57, including Star Ballroom’s owner and manager Ming Wei Ma, and three citizens from Taiwan. Diana Man Ling Tom, 70, died at the LAC+USC Medical Center the day after the attack, bringing the total of deceased to eleven. Nine more people were injured in the shooting.
The Monterey Park shooting was the deadliest mass shooting in the history of Los Angeles County, surpassing the death toll of a massacre in Covina in 2008. It was the second of three mass shootings in California in about a week, preceded by a house shooting in Goshen and followed by another shooting in Half Moon Bay, which killed a combined total of 24 people. It was also the fifth mass killing in the United States since the beginning of 2023.
The Response
Responders from the Monterey Park Police and Fire Departments, as well as agencies from surrounding cities, acted swiftly to respond to the shooting and provide aid to the many injured victims. Firefighters and paramedics entered the location rapidly, quickly triaging the injured, rendering critical care, and transporting all injured to area hospitals. The response was not limited to the local departments, as agencies from numerous surrounding cities also responded to support the community of Monterey Park and its first responders.
Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs Association’s Regional Training Group (RTG) targets critical training needs and provides training across the region to ensure an effective and unified response by all fire agencies in the region. The Monterey Park Shooting saw the response of no less than 7 local fire departments that were trained to respond as one.
Although first responders do not seek recognition for their actions during critical incidents, the Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs Association recognizes the exemplary collaboration of fire departments and their law enforcement counterparts. This collaboration highlights the tremendous force multiplier effect of the Los Angeles region’s “training as one” approach, ensuring that communities with a small number of fire personnel have the same strength of agencies with hundreds or thousands of first responders.
Hear the Experiences of the Responders