When Wellington Chen walked previous Roosevelt Park in Decrease Manhattan on Sunday, he observed extra NYPD officers than standard and instantly realized they had been there due to tragedy – the mass shootings in Monterey Park, Calif.
“That really sends a signal to me that whatever happens, even though it’s thousands of miles away, we live in a small world and it has a ripple effect and will spill over into our community right away,” Chen, the manager director of the Chinatown Partnership, stated Monday, including that it left him with a “profound sadness.”
The Monterey Park shootings, which have to this point claimed 11 lives, came about at a dance studio frequented by members of the Asian community, and have devastated the community because it marks the Lunar New 12 months, the two-week celebration that began Sunday.
The violence Saturday comes amid an prolonged interval of anti-Asian violence that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. The alleged shooter, recognized as Huu Can Tran, 72, fled the scene and was ultimately discovered lifeless from a self-inflicted wound, in response to native authorities.
In a press release, the NYPD confirmed that it had shifted counterterrorism and patrol assets as a precautionary measure regardless of not having recognized any threats in New York, and stated that safety could be elevated at Lunar New 12 months occasions throughout town.
“We are in prayer for those who lost their lives and those who are injured,” said Mayor Eric Adams, speaking at a Lunar New Year celebration on Sunday.
In New York, Vic Lee, the co-founder of Welcome to Chinatown, said the organization’s Lunar New Year Fair would go on later this week, with increased private security as well.
She said the tragedy was especially difficult to make sense of, given the timing.
“This is a festive, cheery, positive time [and] you just don’t address anything negative, so to see what’s happened and what’s unfolded in Monterey [Park], it’s been difficult to process, because Lunar New Year is viewed as such a sacred time.”
Police in California have disclosed no motive.