On the night of Jan. 21, 2023, a 72-year-old man armed with an illegal semi-automatic pistol walked into a dance studio in Monterey Park and killed 11 people. Another nine were seriously wounded. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in Los Angeles County history.
Nearly three years later, two graduates of the USC Price School of Public Policy are working to heal the community’s collective trauma. They’ve joined with their fellow city officials and non-profit organizations to hold community events to bring people together. Access to mental health services has increased, including the provision of counseling at community events. And they’re collaborating with other cities and agencies to help them try to prevent mass shootings.
“We’ve been working with non-profit groups, like Chinatown Service Center and others, to provide opportunities for people who want to be able to process these things or to seek help to be able to do so,” said Thomas Wong, a member of the Monterey Park City Council who graduated from the USC Price School in 2013 with a Master of Public Administration (MPA).
On a recent sunny Saturday morning, technicians were setting up a sound system on the edge of a grassy park next to the Monterey Park City Hall. By the evening, DJs would be playing House music and other genres of electronic dance music for nearby residents.
The event, the Electric Park Festival, is designed to build community. It’s one of several similar initiatives led by Paul Lee (MPA, 2019), the volunteer Chair of the Monterey Park Parks and Recreation Commission.
The festival drew 500 people when it launched in March 2023. About 4,500 showed up to this year’s installment.
While the festival was all about music and fun the first couple of years – and still is – it’s now also part of the human gravity that is pulling the community back together.
“I’ve been … super encouraged by the fact that people have been wanting to show up … to support the community and support each other,” Wong said. “In our time of need and one of the darkest moments … (the) community has been coming together, really shown a lot of resilience.”
But the memory of that night can never be papered over.
“It was rough,” Lee said, recalling the night of the shooting. “I remember it was around 11:30 at night when messages started coming in my group chat, ‘Hey, Paul, … There’s something happening in Monterey Park.’ And I was like, ‘No way this is true.’ The way I cope with things, I just had to go there myself. So, I went out there (to the scene of the shooting) and … I remember thinking, ‘This can’t be happening.’ It really hurt.”
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Find Out MoreAfter his killing spree in Monterey Park, a city of 61,000 people about nine miles east of downtown Los Angeles, the gunman drove to nearby Alhambra but was disarmed before fleeing in his car. He shot and killed himself the next day as police closed in.
“I think a lot of us were just in a state of shock that something like that could happen and it would happen here,” Wong said. “It’s like, there’s no playbook. No one’s prepared for this.”
It came as such a shock in part because Monterey Park was – and is – a safe community, with an overall crime rate lower than the state and national averages.
“You always read about it and it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s somewhere else.’ And yeah, it’s a horrible thing, but it’s not here,” Wong said. “You don’t expect it to happen here in your backyard.”
More than 65% of Monterey Park’s residents are Asian. The community is lush with Asian restaurants and other businesses.
But Wong and Lee noted that many Asians are reluctant to seek mental health services.
“There’s still a stigma,” Lee said.
Which is why community events have played an outsized role in healing the community.
“Having people around you who make you feel like you belong, that sense of community, means a lot. It allows you to rely on others when tragedy strikes, but also to share your wins along the way,” Lee said. “That really goes a long way.”
