Deputy Consul General Ambrosio Enciso III of the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles confirmed that a Filipino was among the fatalities of the Lunar New Year mass shooting inside a dance parlor in Monterey Park, California over the weekend.
In a media interview, Enciso identified the Filipino victim as Valentino Alvero, 68 years old. “We are trying to reach out through our Filipino community contacts to reach out dun sa family,” he said.
The PH deputy consul added that they are still determining if a Filipino was also among those wounded. “Authorities have yet to release the names of the injured,” he said.
The massacre claimed the lives of 11 individuals, 10 at the scene of the crime and one at a local hospital while undergoing treatment.
“‘Yung lugar na ginanapan ng krimen ay isang public hall, Enciso said, “I think there was a party going on there. Monterey Park’s population is 65% Asian” he added.
While authorities have yet to release the names of other victims, however, the coroner’s office said the five women and five men who were killed were all in their 50, 60s and 70s. No information was immediately made available about the 11th victim.
Huu Can Tran, the alleged gunman, later shot himself while inside a white van in Torrance as police moved to arrest him. It was learned that the suspect was first arrested in 1990 for unlawful possession of firearms.
Investigators are looking at jealousy as the motive for the shooting.
Meanwhile, another mass shooting incident happened in California killing 7 individuals. The male suspect was reportedly now under police custody after he was found in a vehicle outside a sheriff’s office substation in Half Moon Bay.