On Monday morning the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles radiated its usual friendly atmosphere welcoming people who bought their food and other products.
If it weren’t for the news and videos on social networks, few would have imagined that just two days ago this place was the site of a shooting that left a man dead and dozens of people fleeing for his life. The suspect in the shooting has not yet been arrested.
Among the spectators was Mr. Adán Hernández, who has worked in a fruit and vegetable business for more than 28 years. He said that on Saturday afternoon he was arranging the fruit when he heard about four “loud” shots and very “close” to where he was.
His wife Cristina Hernández had gone to visit him and also witnessed the strong shots.
Adán said that immediately the owner of the business he yelled for them to hide.
“We got into that little square,” said Adan, pointing to a small compartment under the fruit table. “We couldn’t run either because the stampede of people passed by and there they could also grab the shots because we didn’t know where they came from.”
Cristina said that she only started pray and was very afraid. He added that he has seen the cases of shootings in the news, but he never thought it would happen so close to them.
A security guard who guarded the entrance on Hill Street, and who did not wanted to provide his name, said he had the day off when the shooting happened, but in the more than three years he has been working there he has never experienced an incident of this magnitude.
“If it happens that people with mental problems come to bother customers or some who try to steal but we calm them down,” said the security guard, indicating that there are five security guards watching the market.
Because the market is very popular for its wide variety of food and restaurants, tourists visit it every day. This was the case of José, who patiently waited for his food, but he did not know what had happened a few days before. He and his wife were on vacation and were from San Francisco.
“So far everything we’ve seen looks good and looks calm,” said José, who did not want to reveal his last name.
A few tables away, Michael Melchor and his fiancée Alejandra Hernández had arrived from Utah to visit family and friends, but for now they had decided to eat at the market. Melchor said that he saw several security guards throughout the market which was a good sign.
“Well, seeing them makes you feel safer,” said the young man, who also works as a security guard in Utah and was unaware of the shooting.
Melchor explained that it is well known that security guards do not carry weapons and he believes that it is not necessary since using them in places as crowded as the Grand Central Market could affect more innocent people when trying to stop the suspect by shooting.
“We have been taught to use methods to calm the situation, but we do not use weapons,” said Melchor.
Tragic weekend
The weekend caused sorrow and pain for the three shootings that broke out in different parts of the country. Two of them in California, a state known for having the highest number of firearms regulations.
Three hours before the shooting in downtown Los Angeles, the news reported that a suspect identified as Payton S. Gendron, entered a supermarket in Buffalo New York and began firing relentlessly from the parking lot and then inside the supermarket.
Ten people died and three more were injured. It is believed he was racially motivated as the supermarket was in a primarily black area.
On Sunday in Orange County it was reported that another man, unrelated to any of the the two above suspects, shot inside the Taiwan Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods where a post church service luncheon banquet was taking place.
Orange County Sheriff , Don Barnes, said at a press conference on Monday that there were some 50 people at the time.
“The suspect involved droveto Orange County on Saturday, and was in the area around the church… The suspect was not a regular attender of that church, and there are no known ties to or affiliations with that church other than his appearance[el domingo],” Barnes said.
The sheriff explained that the suspect, identified as David Cho, of 68 years old, secured the doors inside the church with chains and tried to disable the locks with superglue.
Barnes explained that the suspect started shooting, injuring five people, until Dr. John Chang of 52 years, stopped him but lost his life trying.
“I want to tell you that Dr. Chang is a hero in this incident, according to witness statements and corroborated by other means, it is known that Dr. Chang tried to disarm the suspect which allowed other parishioners to intercede and They stopped him,” he said. Barnes at the conference. “Unfortunately, after Dr. Chang approached the suspect, he was hit by gunfire and was pronounced dead at the scene.”
The motive for this shooting is believed to be an incident politically motivated hate speech, Barnes said, adding that the suspect was upset by political tensions between China and Taiwan.
Identifying patterns
Jillian Peterson, a psychologist and professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, said in an interview with KNX that mass shootings have become so routine and the response from the general public has also become routine.
“The media reports it, again the life goes on and on until it happens again,” Peterson said. “It was one of the reasons why we decided to delve into the life stories of mass shooters in this five-year project, which we published in this book called ‘The Violence Project,’ where we really tried to understand who these are. perpetrators, where they come from and what we can actually do.”
Peterson led a national project to create a comprehensive database of every mass shooter since 1966, which has impacted national politics and received global media attention.
Indicated that gun availability and the second amendment are key components to the problem. However, their research found that there is no single thing that can be identified as the trigger, be it mental health, trauma, racism, or hateful rhetoric among others.
“It is a kind of all together. But certainly easy access to guns is really fueling that and especially for people who have documented histories of problematic backgrounds,” the professor said.
She added that part of the motivation for mass shootings are intended to be observed and witnessed.
“It is a horrible and appalling crime, but the goal is to get its message out to the world,” he said.
This is why there are shooters who broadcast their misdeeds on social media live or leave manifests to make sure that your complaint and your name go viral, like the supermarket killer did in Buffalo.
The psychologist explained that some of the solutions found in her research is that they can There may be strategies such as universal background checks, red flag laws that allow a person not fit to carry a weapon to be petitioned in court for the removal of a weapon.
“There are things that have good research support that we can do without an act of Congress… like the safe storage of our own firearms… the creation of response teams to a crisis, building connections with community mental health centers, threat assessment,” Peterson said.
And as for spreading the message, he said that both social networks and individuals are important keys to continue or stop the distribution of the message.