Monterey Park mass shooting: Community honors victims, demands gun control on 1-year anniversary

LOS ANGELES - The city of Monterey Park held a candlelight vigil Sunday night, to mark the one-year anniversary of a mass shooting that claimed the lives of 11 people. Community members gathered at City Hall to remember the victims, show solidarity with the community, and demand stricter gun laws.

Eleven people were killed in the Jan. 21, 2023 mass shooting at the Star Dance Studio during a Lunar New Year celebration. The suspected gunman, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran of Hemet, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a SWAT scene in Torrance.

Hundreds gathered outside city hall Sunday night to join in music, prayer and ceremony.

"It's a healing process. We know all 11 people. We stopped dancing for several months," James Shen said of himself and his wife. "Then we thought the best way to keep them in our mind is [to] start dancing again."

Shen said that through dance he and his wife are starting to reclaim their joy, along with the support of the community.

"We are a whole family," he said. "W're one family. Not only Chinese people, but all races, all the different rank of people, level of people, people who come from different backgrounds. We have the same heart, we have the same love for the people who passed away. This is a night of healing. A night to remember them."

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Kristenne Reidy lost her father, Valentino Alvero, in the shooting. Only recently did she step back on the dance floor with her three young daughters.

"Watching them spend a good hour dancing, I could almost hear my dad saying, ‘See Kristenne? It runs in the family,’" she said.

The tragedy on Jan. 21, 2023 remains the worst mass shooting in Los Angeles County since a disgruntled ex-husband killed 10 people in Covina in 2008. In addition to remembering the victims, speakers at Sunday's vigil called for stricter gun laws.

"Together, we are not just victims. We are a community of heroes that thrives from a brighter and safer future without gun violence," said Brandon Tsay. Tsay was hailed a hero, after he grabbed the gun out of the hands of Tran, who'd moved to another dance studio in Alhambra, following the massacre in Monterey Park. Tsay is believed to have saved countless lives that night.

"I think we honor the memory of those we have lost by embracing the promise of work towards a safer community," he said.

In a visit to Monterey Park just days after the shooting, President Joe Biden announced executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence.

In September, Biden created the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, to coordinate nationwide efforts to prevent gun violence. At the time, Biden renewed a call to Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to adopt a safe storage law and to implement universal background checks.

Following the shooting, City Council unanimously approved legislation to drastically limit where gun dealers are permitted in Monterey Park.

Additionally, officials have taken steps to limit firearms in Los Angeles County's unincorporated areas. 

In October, the supervisors approved an ordinance mandating that gun stores have security cameras, maintain new sales and inventory reports, and deny entry to unaccompanied minors, among other requirements.

On Sunday, Biden issued a statement to mark the anniversary of the Monterey Park shooting, as well as the Half Moon Bay shooting, which happened two days later, on Jan. 23, 2023.

"One year ago today, during Lunar New Year celebrations in Monterey Park, California, 11 innocent people were killed in a heinous act of gun violence that struck at the heart and soul of one of the largest Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities in our nation," Biden said. "In mere moments, friends and families gathering together in joy and hope were devastated by a senseless, horrific mass shooting. Two days later, this tragedy was compounded by another. As we mourned with the community of Monterey Park, we learned a gunman killed seven people in Half Moon Bay, California. Jill and I continue to pray for the families of the victims and many others traumatized by these attacks."

Later in his statement, the president said "we also need Congress to do its part. It's long past time we banned assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, ended immunity from liability for gun manufacturers, passed a national red flag law, enacted universal background checks and required safe storage of guns. We cannot tackle the gun violence epidemic in America while Republicans in Congress sit on their hands."

In 2023, there were 42 mass shootings in the U.S. in which four or more people were killed, including four in California, according to a database compiled by USA Today, The Associated Press and Northeastern University. In California alone last year, 28 people were killed and 10 injured in mass shootings.

City News Service contributed to this report.