At the press conference earlier, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department announced support for victims' families after last night's shootingAt a press conference, sheriff Robert Luna said a victim resource centre had been set up at the Langley Senior Centre, located at 400 West Emerson Avenue, Monterey Park.

"I want to make sure the victims' family and friends take advantage of this resource. As we look for the suspect we will not forget the victims," Luna said.

Image source, Reuters

At a press conference a short while ago, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said he believed there was only one suspect, but was not ruling out the possibility that other people were involved.

"We leave every option on the table," he said. "We leave every option open because we don't want to focus on one area while someone else is getting away.

"Our job is to collect every shred of this awful puzzle that has been laid out by this suspect."

He also said he hadn't ruled more than one weapon being used.

Swat officers have now closed in on the white van about two hours after the standoff in Torrance began.

The officers have broken one of the front windows and opened the side doors of the vehicle, pulling out what appears to be blankets from the back of the van.

It is still unclear what condition the driver is in.

Swat officers are involved with a stand-off with a van that may be connected to the shooting. Watch some aerial footage of the stand-off below, and stay tuned for more from the scene.

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us, police are hunting the suspect in a shooting that killed 10 people in Monterey Park, near Los Angeles. There is currently a stand-off between police and a white van that police say might be connected to the case.

Eyewitness accounts have said the driver of the parked van, in Torrance, which is south of Monterey Park, appears to be slouched over the wheel without moving.

"As officers gave commands for the occupant to exit the van, they heard and believed the driver may have shot himself," CNN's John Valerio wrote on Twitter a short while ago.

Local reporters have also reported little movement inside the vehicle during the standoff.

At the ongoing press conference in Monterey Park, Sheriff Luna notes "it's a possibility" the driver of the vehicle is dead.

Again, we don't know for sure the van is connected to the shooting - police say they don't know, but that the van resembles a "van of interest" from the shooting.

Image source, EPA

At the news conference, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said that the driver of the white van that's involved in a stand-off in nearby Torrance is "possibly" a suspect, but that his identity remains unknown.

The van, he added, resembles a "van of interest" in the case.

"We don’t know the person’s condition inside," he says.

Another press conference has begun in Monterey Park as the standoff in Torrance continues.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna presents an image of the suspect, who is yet to be named.

Addressing the ongoing "tactical incident" in Torrance, he says: "People have asked: is that your suspect? We don't know."

As we mentioned earlier, there is a stand-off between authorities and a white van that may be connected to the shooting. Authorities reportedly moved onlookers away from the scene, warning of a potential threat from hazardous material inside the vehicle.

Local journalists on the scene are sharing video of what they describe as a bomb squad vehicle arriving at the parking lot in Torrance, which is south of Monterey Park, where the shooting took place.

A Swat team has boxed in a white van that may contain the shooting suspect - and two reporters on the scene say that police are moving onlookers away because of a potential hazardous materials situation.

Journalist Kristy Hutchings says she's been told there could be chemicals or explosives in the van.

Cristy Fajardo says police are clearing the parking lot where the white van has been barricaded. The stand-off is Torrance, south of where the shooting happened.

Image source, Reuters

Police have been investigating whether the suspected gunman fled the crime scene in a white cargo van.

A "van of interest" may now have been tracked to Torrance, a city about 28 miles south of Monterey Park.

We are hearing reports of a stand-off between Swat officers and what may be the suspected gunman.

In the past few minutes, local media streams have shown two Swat vehicles boxing in a white van from the front and rear. It is unclear if the suspect is inside, and if so, what condition he may be in.

We've also seen a helicopter belonging to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department landing in the area.

Regan Morris
Reporting from Monterey Park

Image source, Getty Images

The shooting site is packed with police, local business owners and shocked members of the community. An LA County Sheriff’s helicopter has been circling above.

Today was supposed to be a big Lunar New Year celebration on Garvey Avenue. Part of the street was blocked off for the festival ushering in the Year of the Rabbit. But instead, vendors were packing up their tents and wares – stuffed bunny rabbit toys, promotional pens, crystal and bamboo figurines.

“It was packed,” says Scott Harris, who had a stall set up with his wife Kerrie Harris. The festival lasted until about 21:00 on Saturday and most of the vendors had gone home before the shooting about an hour later.

“It was joyous,” Kerrie said, adding that after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic people were excited to get together for the New Year. “We gave away so much free stuff!”

The Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where the shooting happened, was hosting a New Year’s Eve party.

A man who lives down the street from the club said he heard the music stop just after the shooting and then he heard helicopters circling for the rest of the night.

The neighbour, who wanted to be identified as Mr Liu, said there were many young people partying in the streets and then it just ended. The noise of the helicopters was constant.

“I didn’t know what happened,” he said, adding that he had been unable to sleep.

Police here have allowed the business owners to return to the festival site to pack up their tents and prizes because the festival has now been cancelled.

In the past half an hour, we've heard reports that a Swat team has surrounded a white van in Torrance, south of Monterey Park, where 10 people were killed in a shooting.

This is potentially significant because Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a press conference earlier on Sunday that a white van was a "van of interest" in the case, although it wasn't fully clear that the van was linked to the shooting.

We're waiting for further confirmation.

Monterey Park officials are set to hold another press conference with new details about Saturday's mass shooting, in which 10 people are confirmed to have died.

Over the past few minutes, police have released the first images of the suspected gunman.

Reports also suggest that Swat officers, in the past hour, surrounded a white van south of LA that may have been connected to the shooting. These reports have not been confirmed by authorities.

Stay tuned as we bring you the latest.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has released the first images of the suspect in the Monterey Park shooting.

He is described as 5 ft 10 inches tall, wearing a black jacket, beanie, and glasses.

They say investigators have identified him as a homicide suspect and he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Image source, The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Local media outlets are reporting that armed Swat officers have surrounded a white van about 30 miles south west of Monterey Park, and that there may be connection to the shooting in Monterey Park.

This has not yet been confirmed by authorities.

Stay tuned for more updates.

May Lee, a journalist in southern California, has described the attack as a “blow to the heart and soul” for the Asian American community.

In an interview with the BBC, Ms Lee said that while the motives of the killer aren’t known, the attack comes during a time of rising hate incidents against Asian Americans.

These incidents have brought the community together, which is a good thing, but they also create fear, she said.

“Regardless of that motive [for the attack], what it’s done is instil more fear that we already had and so that’s exacerbating an ongoing problem.”

Image source, Getty Images

Monterey Park has cancelled today's Lunar New Year celebration because of the shooting - and some similar events elsewhere in the area are now being postponed.

The University of Southern California Pacific Asia Museum (USC PAM) - which is the only Asian and Pacific Islander art and culture museum in Southern California - has called off its planned Sunday festival.

The museum's director, Dr Bethany Montagano, said: “All of us at USC PAM are heartbroken to hear about the horrific violence that happened in our home in the San Gabriel Valley."

Also scrapping its Sunday celebrations out of caution is Citadel Outlets, a sprawling shopping centre about 10 miles from the scene of the shooting.

Some event organisers and authorities in other cities have said their events would take place with increased security.

That includes annual celebrations in the Californian cities of Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, and Westminster - and even across the country in the capital, Washington DC.

Regan Morris
Reporting from Monterey Park

Image source, Getty Images

Adrian Reyes and other vendors packed up their stalls after the rest of the Monterey Park Lunar New Year festival was cancelled because of the shooting.

Reyes was not at the scene when the shooting took place.

But she said the festival was packed and the atmosphere was joyous beforehand.

"It's really sad, I'm not of Asian descent but I always celebrate here and it's just so sad," she said.

World leaders and other public figures have been reacting to news of the shooting in Monterey Park, in which 10 people died.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that his "heart breaks" for residents "whose Lunar New Year celebrations were violently attacked and whose lives have been forever changed".

Vice-President Kamala Harris, who previously served as the junior senator from California, wrote: "Overnight, yet another community was torn apart by a senseless act of gun violence."

She pledged the Biden administration would provide full support to local authorities.

Actor Simu Liu, who plays the first Asian superhero in the Marvel movie franchise, shared his reaction to the shooting in the early hours of Sunday morning.

"I am shocked, saddened, angered, and heartbroken for the families who have been affected tonight," he wrote in a Twitter thread.

Firearms deaths are a fixture of American life. There were 1.5 million of them between 1968 and 2017 - that's higher than the number of soldiers killed in every US conflict since the American War for Independence in 1775.

While calculating the number of guns in private hands around the world is difficult, figures from the Small Arms Survey - a Swiss-based leading research project - estimate that there were 390 million guns in circulation in 2018.

The US ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, up from 88 per 100 in 2011, far surpasses that of other countries around the world.

More recent data also suggests that gun ownership grew significantly over the last several years. One study, published by the Annals of Internal Medicine in February, found that 7.5 million US adults - just under 3% of the population - became owners of their first gun between January 2019 and April 2021.

A separate study, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2021, linked a rise in gun ownership during the pandemic to higher rates of gun injuries among - and inflicted by - children.

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