“Simply because this person happens to be Asian American from Monterey Park, doesn’t mean he wasn’t also targeting community members,” said community advocate Manjusha Kulkarni in reference to the man accused of fatally gunning down 11 people at a dance hall on Saturday night.
“He knew that there was a large Lunar New Year celebration, and he came armed,” continued Kulkarni, executive director of the Los Angeles-based AAPI Equity Alliance, in an interview with VOA.
Monterey Park Councilman Henry Lo agreed that his community will take time to get over the shock of that mass killing and another two days later near San Francisco.
“We will need everyone’s support as we begin the long road to recovery from this awful trauma,” he told VOA’s Mandarin Service.