In Oakland, police said one person was killed and seven others were injured in a “multiple person shooting” Monday night, with homicide investigators taking over the ongoing investigation.
The Oakland incident was included in the 2023 mass shooting database by Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research organization, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot to death, without include the shooter. The group has already counted 39 mass shootings in the United States in the first month of 2023 alone, including the last three in California.
There is no universal definition of “mass murder” or “mass shooting.” Last year, The Washington Post began defining a mass murder as an event in which four or more people, not including the shooter, have been shot dead.
“Tragedy after tragedy,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) tweeted. He said he was at a hospital with victims of Saturday’s massacre in Monterey Park when he was brought out for a briefing on Half Moon Bay.
Member of the California State Assembly marc berman said he was at a vigil for the Monterey Park victims just hours before hearing about the victims in Half Moon Bay. “Before we’ve had a chance to mourn them, there’s another mass shooting.”
These communities join a growing list of American cities and towns reeling from shootings in schools, supermarkets, places of worship, nightclubs and other shared spaces across the country.
The carnage in Monterey Park rocked a largely Asian community just as Lunar New Year celebrations were getting underway. The Los Angeles County sheriff identified the suspect, a 72-year-old man of Asian descent, and said the motive remained unclear.
The motive is also unknown in the northern California town of Half Moon Bay, where police said they arrested a suspect and recovered a semi-automatic handgun after finding victims at two farms.
That rampage, in San Mateo County, was also the second mass shooting in the Bay Area on Monday alone. The Oakland police statement said Monday night that the injured victims appeared to be in stable condition.
