President Biden orders flags to half-staff after Monterey Park shooting

President Joe Biden has ordered all United States flags at public buildings to be flown at half-staff to honour the victims of the mass shooting in Monterey Park, California.

Biden directed that flags be lowered until sunset on January 26 ‘as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on January 21, 2023, in Monterey Park, California,’ a White House statement said.

On Saturday, ten people were killed and at least 10 others wounded in a mass shooting in a largely Asian city in southern California, police said.

The gunman opened fire at a dance venue in Monterey Park, as the local community were celebrating Lunar New Year, with witnesses saying he shot indiscriminately with a semiautomatic weapon.

Later, the gunman believed to have killed 10 people during Lunar New Year celebrations in California shot himself dead as police moved in to arrest him, the local sheriff said on Sunday.