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== Investigation == |
== Investigation == |
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Investigators from |
Investigators from Orange County’s Sheriff and District Attorney’s office and the FBI described the shooting as one that was motivated by hatred against Taiwan and Taiwanese people.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2022-05-16 |title=Laguna Woods church shooter is Vegas man 'upset about political tensions between China and Taiwan': Sheriff |url=https://ktla.com/news/local-news/suspect-in-laguna-woods-church-shooting-idd-as-68-year-old-vegas-man/ |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=KTLA |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last1=Dovarganes |first1=Damian |last2=Weber |first2=Christopher |date=15 May 2022 |title=California churchgoers detained gunman in deadly attack |work=The Associated Press |url=https://apnews.com/article/religion-shootings-california-914ec2bfae85cbba41f857838824a567 |url-status=live |access-date=15 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516011434/https://apnews.com/article/religion-shootings-california-914ec2bfae85cbba41f857838824a567 |archive-date=May 16, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Prosecutor: Church gunman had ‘diabolical plan’ to massacre |url=https://apnews.com/article/religion-government-and-politics-shootings-las-vegas-california-dc75c7ede3972dded05c348ec73ad30d |agency=AP}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Shooting at Taiwanese church in California that killed 1, wounded 5 investigated as hate crime, FBI says |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/rcna29021 |agency=NBC}}</ref> Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said that handwritten notes recovered from a vehicle that allegedly belonged to Chou recorded his motives for perpetrating the mass shooting; these included his belief that Taiwan should not be independent from China and his "hatred for the Taiwanese people", which, Barnes surmised, stemmed from his alienation from Taiwanese society when he lived in Taiwan.<ref name=":8">{{cite news |date=17 May 2022 |title=Beijing's rhetoric in spotlight as Taiwan condemns California shooting |website=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/17/taiwan-president-tsai-ing-wen-condemns-california-church-shooting |access-date=17 May 2022 |archive-date=May 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517143458/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/17/taiwan-president-tsai-ing-wen-condemns-california-church-shooting |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=California church shooter motivated by anti-Taiwanese hate, police say |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/16/california-laguna-woods-church-shooting/ |access-date=2022-05-18 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=May 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517025432/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/16/california-laguna-woods-church-shooting/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first1=Hannah |last1=Fry |first2=Richard |last2=Winton |first3=Jeong |last3=Park |first4=Luke |last4=Money |date=16 May 2022 |title=Laguna Woods shooting was a hate crime targeting Taiwanese people, sheriff says |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-16/laguna-woods-gunman-worked-methodically-but-motive-a-mystery |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516181540/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-16/laguna-woods-gunman-worked-methodically-but-motive-a-mystery |archive-date=May 16, 2022 |access-date=May 16, 2022 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref> |
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==Accused== |
==Accused== |
Revision as of 07:25, 6 July 2022
2022 Laguna Woods shooting | |
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Part of mass shootings in the United States | |
Location | 24301 El Toro Road, Laguna Woods, Orange County, California, United States |
Coordinates | 33°36′35″N 117°44′00″W / 33.60964°N 117.73338°WCoordinates: 33°36′35″N 117°44′00″W / 33.60964°N 117.73338°W |
Date | May 15, 2022 c. 1:26 p.m. (PDT) |
Attack type | Mass shooting |
Weapons | Two handguns |
Deaths | 1 |
Injured | 5 |
Motive | Anti-Taiwanese sentiment (suspected) |
Accused | David Chou |
Charges |
|
The Laguna Woods shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on May 15, 2022, at the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, California, United States. The church in Orange County was hosting a congregation of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church for Sunday services. The shooter killed one person and wounded five others.[1][2] A suspect, 68-year-old David Chou of Las Vegas, was arrested at the scene. Authorities allege that the crime was committed out of a political hatred of Taiwan and the Taiwanese people.[3][4] Chou has been charged with one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder, all with hate crime enhancements, and four counts of possessing an explosive device.[5][6]
Shooting
The shooter attacked during a luncheon after the church service.[7] There were between 30 and 40 people inside the church at the time.[8]
At around 10:10 a.m. local time, a man entered the sanctuary. The receptionist, who did not recognize him, welcomed him and asked him to fill out a form with his personal details. He refused, claiming to have completed the form in the past.[9] Witnesses said he mingled with other attendees[10] and spoke to them in Taiwanese Hokkien.[11] Pastor Billy Chang said the man sat in the back of the sanctuary and was reading a newspaper throughout the entire sermon.[7]
After the service, the church goers gathered in a separate hall for a luncheon in Chang's honor, and some guests who left early saw the shooter attempting to lock the doors with chains. While some asked what he was doing, others assumed he was a security officer.[7][12] The shooter shot first into the ceiling, with many assuming it was a balloon popping instead of gunfire. Some attendees dropped to the floor and crawled under tables before, an attendee, John Cheng, charged the shooter and tried to disarm him but was in turn shot and killed.[13][7] As the shooter attempted to reload his weapon, Chang hit the shooter on the head with a chair.[12][14] Following which, several attendees tackled him and then hogtied him with an extension cord and confiscated two handguns, which were recovered by police.[14][15][16] After he complained, those holding the shooter down eased up on the force of restraint to allow him to breathe.[17]
Police were alerted at about 1:26 p.m.[15] The doors were chained shut and their locks glued. Four items similar to Molotov cocktails were stored inside.[3]
Victims
The dead victim, 52-year-old John Cheng (Chinese: 鄭達志; pinyin: Zhèng Dázhì), was a sports medicine physician based in Laguna Niguel.[13][18] He was married with a son and a daughter.[19] Five other victims, all of Taiwanese descent and aged between 66 and 92, were also shot but survived their injuries.[4] Four of them are male and one is an 86-year-old female.[18]
Investigation
Investigators from Orange County’s Sheriff and District Attorney’s office and the FBI described the shooting as one that was motivated by hatred against Taiwan and Taiwanese people.[20][11][21][22] Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said that handwritten notes recovered from a vehicle that allegedly belonged to Chou recorded his motives for perpetrating the mass shooting; these included his belief that Taiwan should not be independent from China and his "hatred for the Taiwanese people", which, Barnes surmised, stemmed from his alienation from Taiwanese society when he lived in Taiwan.[23][24][25]
Accused
David Wenwei Chou was born in 1953[26] in Taiwan as a second-generation waishengren and raised in a military dependents' village[27][28] near Taichung alongside four siblings.[29] He graduated from the Taichung First Senior High School in 1971[23] and completed a master's degree in the U.S. during the 1990s.[28] In 1994, he was a lecturer at the National Pingtung Institute of Commerce for one year.[30]
According to his former neighbor, Chou was once a friendly owner of a Las Vegas apartment building.[31][32] In 2012 he was nearly killed by two tenants who pretended to pay rent.[33] Chou fell unconscious, lost two liters of blood and hearing in one ear, and required over 30 stitches on his head and 8 screws in his elbow because of his injuries. He also became suspicious of the police detectives, who claimed to have sent his bag without any money inside to the prosecutor's office. After the prosecutor denied having received anything, the detectives eventually said they still had the bag and all the money, which were returned to Chou.[34]
Acquaintances who knew Chou and his wife through the Taiwanese Association of Las Vegas and the local Taiwanese Presbyterian Church said he was very negative about life. They recalled him complaining about the U.S. government and law enforcement and were surprised by his pro-unification stance because most members there were pro-independent.[35] In 2019, Chou attended the founding ceremony of the Las Vegas chapter of the National Association for China's Peaceful Unification and displayed a banner calling for the “eradication of pro independence demons.”[36][37][38] The association's speakspersons said he demonized people from Taiwan and has not been involved with the organization since the second half of 2019.[18][39]
Chou has two children, but his life unraveled in 2021 after his terminally ill wife returned to Taiwan for cancer treatment.[33][40] He had been a considerate landlord but ultimately had to sell the building he owned.[41] After becoming a tenant, Chou took a few jobs as a security guard, but the income was not enough to pay the rent. He once fired a gun inside, although no one was hurt.[13] In March 2022, Chou was evicted and became homeless after being turned down by several local churches for a place to stay.[41] His mental stability diminished, once telling his former neighbor "I just don’t care about my life anymore.”[32] Other tenants have found old photographs of Chou posing with a gun and laughing hysterically at a memorial for the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.[41]
His former roommate recalled a conversation two weeks prior to the shooting in which Chou described the Taiwanese government as corrupt and disliked those who supported it.[42] The pan-blue newspaper World Journal said they received a manifesto, allegedly written by Chou and entitled Diary of the Independence-Slaying Angel (滅獨天使日記), one day after the shooting, which they decided against publishing and turned over to the police.[43][40]
Legal proceedings
Chou has been held without bail. Prosecutors initially charged Chou with one count of murder, five counts of premeditated attempted murder, four counts of possession of an explosive device, and enhancement charges of lying in wait and personal discharge of a firearm causing death.[44] On June 17 prosecutors added hate crime enhancements to the murder and attempted murder charges.[45][6] If convicted, Chou faces either the death penalty or life imprisonment.[10][9]
Reactions
Sheriff Barnes commended Cheng as a heroic figure who prevented the shooter from hurting more people.[4] U.S. Representative Katie Porter, whose district includes Laguna Woods, referred to an earlier shooting in Buffalo, New York and said, "This should not be our new normal. I will work hard to support the victims and their families."[46]
Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen condemned the shooting, and offered condolences to the victims.[47] She asked for the political representatives in the US to fly to California to provide assistance. Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan's de facto ambassador, posted on Twitter that she was "shocked and saddened by the fatal shooting at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in California", and she expressed she would mourn together with the Taiwanese-American community and families of the victims.[48] The Taiwanese Kuomintang issued a statement condemning the shooting.[23]
Some have blamed the incident on Beijing’s reunification rhetoric.[23][49] In Taiwan, DPP legislator Lin Ching-yi attributed the shooting to “genocidal ideology”, and 60 civic groups called for countries to designate the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification as a terrorist organization.[50][51]
Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China's ministry of foreign affairs, said "[w]e hope the US government can take action against its increasingly severe gun violence problem".[23] Chinese Embassy in Washington spokesperson Liu Pengyu said: "We express our condolences to the victims and sincere sympathy to the bereaved families and the injured."[12]
On May 21, local elected officials and religious leaders gathered at the church where the shooting occurred to memorialize and honor the victims of the shooting. A moment of silence was held for the deceased victim, John Cheng. Representative Young Kim stated that there was no place in the community and society for any type of hate and that the community needed to stand together.[52]
In June, Representatives Katie Porter and Michelle Steel proposed a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to John Cheng.[53]
See also
References
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- ^ "Five Injured, One Dead in Shooting at Laguna Woods Church; Suspected Shooter in Custody". KNBC. Archived from the original on May 15, 2022. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
- ^ a b Bernstein, Sharon; Hay, Andrew (May 16, 2022). "California church shooter was motivated by hate, politics". Reuters. Archived from the original on May 16, 2022. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
- ^ a b c "California church shooter was motivated by hatred for Taiwan, China-Taiwan tensions". The Straits Times. Singapore. May 17, 2022. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
- ^ Von Quednow, Cindy (May 17, 2022). "Accused O.C. church shooter charged with 10 counts, including murder". KTLA. Archived from the original on May 18, 2022. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
- ^ a b "Hate Crime Allegation Added to Charges in Deadly OC Church Shooting". NBC Los Angeles. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
- ^ a b c d Branson-Potts, Hailey; Fry, Hannah; Ormseth, Matthew (May 19, 2022). "Inside the Laguna Woods church shooting: A stranger lurking, 'evil' and heroes rising". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
- ^ Tebor, Celina; Hayes, Christal (May 15, 2022). "'Exceptional heroism': California churchgoers stopped rampage, hogtied suspect after deadly shooting". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 15, 2022. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
- ^ a b Cabrera, Tony (May 17, 2022). "Las Vegas man accused in deadly shooting at Orange County church set to appear in court". ABC7 Los Angeles. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
- ^ a b Von Quednow, Cindy (May 16, 2022). "'Heinous crime': O.C. shooting suspect secured church doors with chains, placed explosives at scene: Sheriff". KTLA. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
- ^ a b Fry, Hannah; Winton, Richard; Park, Jeong; Money, Luke (May 16, 2022). "Laguna Woods shooting was a hate crime targeting Taiwanese people, sheriff says". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 16, 2022. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
Some said that Chou spoke to them in Taiwanese before opening fire
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- ^ a b "Laguna Woods shooting - live: Churchgoers 'hogtied' shooter with power cord after one killed and five injured". The Independent. May 2022. Archived from the original on May 16, 2022. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
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- ^ Chang, Hetty (May 17, 2022). "Pastor Throws Chair at Laguna Woods Mass Shooting Suspect, Then Wife Ties His Legs". NBC Los Angeles. Archived from the original on May 18, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
- ^ a b c Wen, Weizhong (May 18, 2022). "加州教堂枪击案嫌凶是台湾移民 警方调查:政治动机仇恨犯罪" [Californian church shooting suspect is Taiwanese immigrant: Police investigates as politically-related hate crime]. Lianhe Zaobao (in Chinese). Archived from the original on May 18, 2022. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
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