California mass shootings: Asian Americans grapple with back-to-back tragedy

Two recent mass shootings have the Asian American community in California — and the rest of the state — reeling.

The shooting, which included both an Asian American victim and perpetrator, shocked and devastated a community still reeling from the violence that many members have experienced during the pandemic.

“These two specific tragedies have been jarring and triggered for many Asian Americans,” says James Zarsadiaz, a professor at the University of San Francisco who has written extensively on the history of Monterey Park, where one of the shootings took place. “It’s really hard to process all of this… because for [many] Asian Americans, the past few years, have been a tragedy back.

The shooting happened over the course of several days last week. In Monterey Park, California – a suburb near Los Angeles – a 72-year-old Asian American killed 11 people, all of whom were of Asian descent, in a local dance studio there; he also wounded nine others. Police have yet to determine a motive for the shooting, although they have been informed of a personal relationship the shooter had with studio patrons.

In Half Moon Bay – a beach town south of San Francisco – a 66-year-old Asian American killed 7 people, including a Chinese and Latino farm worker, on Monday. The suspect worked with several victims at a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay and previously worked at a second farm that employed other victims. Police are reviewing the attack as possible “workplace violence”, although the investigation is ongoing. In both cases, more information about the victims as well as the motive of the suspect is still being released.

Both shootings happened as the Lunar New Year holiday, a time that is usually a joyous occasion for celebrations with friends and family, was just around the corner. Community activists noted that the shooting only exacerbated past traumas, tapping into fears of anti-Asian violence and raising concerns about gun control and mental health. The shooting follows a surge in anti-Asian attacks in recent years as Asian Americans have been blamed for spreading the coronavirus. Between March 2020 and March 2022, the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate has received reports of nearly 11,000 anti-Asian incidents including physical violence, verbal abuse, and property damage.

“I think it’s just a violent attack, like one. We’ve just had a storm,” said Chrissy Lau, a professor of history at California State University Monterey Bay, who specializes in Asian American studies.

The California shooting has become a “storm” of horrors

The shootings add to the pain and anxiety Asians have experienced in recent years, activists said.

“It’s really, you know, piling on one another,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, founder of Stop AAPI Hate, an organization dedicated to tracking anti-Asian violence and harassment. “Every incident becomes another incident where the community is reeling.”

For some, the initial news of the Monterey Park shooting fueled fears of another racist attack on Asian Americans similar to the violence that has escalated during the pandemic. In recent years, there have been incidents of hate crimes against Asian Americans, blaming the group for the pandemic. And as politicians have encouraged more incendiary anti-China rhetoric, experts worry that these statements may inflame xenophobic sentiments and actions.

“There’s still a sense of being a target, and fear, when you hear about shootings like this,” Connie Chung Joe, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, told the Associated Press.

Adding to these fears are previous anti-Asian attacks including the 2020 stabbing of an Asian family in a Midland, Texas, Sam’s Club parking lot and the 2021 mass shooting at multiple Atlanta-area spas that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent. When more information has been announced, however, the revelation that the suspect in the two recent shootings is an old Asian American has been asked to worry and reflect on himself. Given the limited information on the motive of this attack, many in the Asian American community are still trying to wrap their heads around the two causes behind, and some similarities between the shooters.

“It’s from my people and against my people, so it’s very sad,” said Min Zhou, a professor of sociology and Asian American studies at UCLA.

“He chose to harm his fellow Asian Americans, so I think it’s an added level of pain,” added Kulkarni, of the Monterey Park shooter.

The firing has disturbed people’s sense of security on both sides. Historically, Monterey Park has been a “vibrant Asian American enclave,” Kulkarni said, and “one of the first suburbs in the United States to have an Asian majority,” according to Zarsadiaz. Since the 1970s, Monterey Park has become a “suburban Chinatown” and a central, middle-class center of Asian American restaurants, malls, and gathering places.

“I go to dim sum in Monterey Park, I play volleyball in Monterey Park, I shop for food in Monterey Park,” said Lau, who grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, where the suburbs are located.

“Monterey Park, you know, holds a lot of cultural value for a lot of Asian Americans, because, again, it shows where a lot of us live, or at least a lot of us grew up,” Zarsadiaz said.

Violence in a historically safe space for Asian Americans has inspired an outpouring of grief and solidarity. “This fear is always there when you go through such devastating events and experiences,” said Zhou, who said her son’s son-in-law often visited the dance studio at the scene of the shooting.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has released the names of the victims in the Monterey Park shooting, and they include Xiujuan Yu, 57; Hongying Jian, 62; Lilian Li, 63; Mymy Nhan, 65; Muoi Dai Ung, 67; Diana Man Ling Tom, 70; Wen-Tau Yu, 64; Valentino Marcos Alvero, 68; Ming Wei Ma, 72; Yu-Lun Kao, 72; and Chia Ling Yau, 76. Many older Asian Americans frequent the studio and enjoy ballroom dancing.

In Half Moon Bay, shooters targeted farm workers at two mushroom farms including Chinese and Latino workers, striking fear into an already vulnerable community.

Today, there are 2,500 to 3,000 farm workers working in and around Half Moon Bay, a coastal town in Northern California, according to the Los Angeles Times. This includes migrant workers and long-term residents, people of Asian and Latino descent and some undocumented immigrants. Historically, Asian Americans, including Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino workers, have comprised a large portion of California’s agricultural workforce, although their numbers have declined since 1965, when U.S. policies led to more Asian immigrants in other professions.

Half Moon Bay Vice Mayor Joaquin Jimenez has said that some farm workers are afraid to return to work after this horrific attack, which happened where many of the workers live and was witnessed by children returning from school.

“It’s important to humanize who these farmworkers are: They’re mothers and fathers and uncles,” Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, executive director of ALAS, a Half Moon Bay nonprofit dedicated to advocacy for Latino workers, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Farmworkers have long faced challenging working conditions in the country, including low wages, crowded housing, and workplace exploitation. Now, added to that concern is the fear of fatal violence on the job.

Information about the victims in Half Moon Bay is not yet available, although the names of six of the seven victims have been released by the San Mateo County coroner’s office. They are Zhi Shen Liu, 73; Qi Zhong Cheng, 66; Marciano Jimenez Martinez, 50; Ye Tao Bing, 43; Ai Xiang Zhang, 74; and Jing Zhi Lu, 64.

The shooting prompted calls to change the policy

An outpouring of support for the victims and calls for policy change have followed the shooting. Members of the Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay communities responded with mutual aid and financial support to the victims and their families.

“For us, the focus is on what we can do for the victims, the survivors, their families, and community members,” Kulkarni said. The LA Times has compiled a list of fundraising campaigns to help victims of the Monterey Park shooting, and the San Jose Mercury News has also compiled a list to help victims of the Half Moon Bay shooting.

Beyond victim-focused aid, experts and organizers are also calling for stricter gun laws, more mental health resources for parents, and more research into domestic violence in the Asian American community. In both cases, the shooter was an older Asian American, and in the case of the Half Moon Bay attack, the shooter had previously received a temporary restraining order for violence against a roommate.

The similar age profile of the two shooters has led to more investment in mental health and economic resources for Asian American elders, a group that often faces gaps in services due to stigma, a lack of cultural fluidity among doctors, and language barriers.

“I think the general consensus is that a lot of Asian Americans, especially older Asian Americans, don’t have the language or the tools … to deal with mental health issues,” Zarsadiaz said.

Advocates and lawmakers have also pushed for stronger gun control measures after the two shootings, including supporting a federal assault weapons ban passed in Congress. In the past, Asian Americans have strongly supported gun control measures — with 77 percent in favor in the 2022 AAPI Data survey — an advocacy that will continue in the wake of the tragedy.

“This is a huge problem with gun violence,” Zhou said. “And violence is not unique to certain groups, so it needs to be addressed across the board.”