California shooting: 10 killed at dance studio during lunar new year parties – latest updates

US Senate majority whip Dick Durbin has just expressed fears for the security of Asian Americans across the US in the wake of the shooting in California, as we await any news on whether the Asian American community there was deliberately targeted on the basis of race.

The Illinois Democrat also called for great gun safety laws in the US. There was new federal legislation tightening gun laws passed last year with bipartisan support, the first for decades. And many more laws have been passed at local and state level in the last five or 10 years, but Republicans in Congress still generally reject strong reforms such as a nationwide ban on military-style assault rifles being sold to the general public.

Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union politics show this morning, he said of the lunar new year parties and events that were taking place in Monterey Park yesterday: “The same celebrations are taking place her in Chicago and across the US. I’m very concerned for the Asian American population. I am hoping this is not a hate crime.”

Durbin condemned yet another mass shooting, “which sadly is uniquely American experience. It happens over and over and over again.”

He said there was “a lot” more lawmakers could do to “make our nation safer for everyone” and he slammed the US Supreme Court, now dominated by a super-majority of six conservatives, for allowing laxer gun laws and operating with a mentality towards gun safety that he was is “beyond the realm of reality.”

He lamented the public’s ease of acquiring high capacity magazines and weapons “that belong in the military.”

Local law enforcement officers in Monterey Park, California, are hunting for the suspect in the shooting in a dance studio there on Saturday night and they are assisted in the hunt by officers from the Los Angeles county sheriff’s department and federal agents from the FBI.

We are expecting a press conference by the police at 11am US eastern time today where, hopefully, they will offer more details not just about what happened but where the manhunt and the investigation are up to.

The frantic hunt for the perpetrator continues after he fled in the night. Police have said he is a man but have not given out any other details, if they have them.

US president Joe Biden has been briefed by the US homeland security department, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House spokeswoman, said on Twitter.

Monterey Park is a majority Asian American city about seven miles from downtown Los Angeles.

“Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones tonight in our neighboring city, Monterey Park, where a mass shooting just occurred,” said Los Angeles City controller Kenneth Mejia, the first Asian American to hold citywide office.

Good morning, US live blog readers, we’re following the news breaking out of California overnight after a shooter opened fire in a dance studio near Los Angeles late on Saturday and, at latest reports, killed 10 people. Police say the gunman is on the loose. We’ll bring you developments as they happen. Here’s where things stand:

• A gunman killed 10 people and wounded 10 others at a Los Angeles-area ballroom dance club following a Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday night.

• The tragedy took place at Monterey Park, about seven miles east of downtown LA, a small city with a large Asian American population.

• Police say the shooter was a man and he is still at large, though they have given no further description or any information about a possible motive.

• Captain Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles sheriff’s department said early on Sunday that the wounded were taken to hospitals and their conditions range from stable to critical. Meyer said 10 people died at the scene.

• Meyer said people were “pouring out of the location screaming” late Saturday when officers arrived on the scene. He said officers then went into the dance ballroom as firefighters treated the wounded.

• Lunar New Year celebrations are planned in cities across the US and, indeed, across the world today to mark the start of the Chinese year of the rabbit. There will be huge events in Los Angeles, New York and other places today.

• Law enforcement in Monterey Park say it’s too early to determine whether the shooting there was a hate crime against Asian Americans or whether the gunman knew any of his victims or had any connection to the dance venue where he struck.