The suspected gunman who opened fire at a church in Orange County, Calif. Sunday – killing one person and injuring five others – is a Chinese American man who is believed to have committed an “act of politically motivated hatred” A Taiwanese congregation was targeted. Native Sheriff.
The suspect, 68-year-old David Chow, was a Chinese immigrant and US citizen who “Specifically targeting the Taiwanese community” Sheriff Don Barnes told a news conference on Monday that he shot and killed a Taiwanese Presbyterian churchgoer when he traveled from Las Vegas to the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods.
“Based on the information we’ve gathered, this was an incident of politically motivated hate,” Barnes said, adding that officials believe the suspect was “disturbed by political tensions between China and Taiwan” and that they Targeted parishioners on the basis of their nationality.
On Sunday, about 50 members of the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan were having lunch when the suspect came, chained the church doors, superglue the locks and began shooting at the parishioners.
He killed 52-year-old Dr. John Cheng, who left behind a wife and two children at a sheriff’s office. The age of the five injured was 66 to 92 years.
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Barnes said that Cheng was a “hero” who accused the shooter before he was shot. Others threw a chair at the shooter, then tied her legs with extension cords Until law enforcement arrived. The sheriff said representatives arrived within minutes and took the suspect into custody.
was suspicious registered in a case of felony and five attempted murders.
Law enforcement recovered two handguns at the scene and several bags of gunpowder, as well as equipment such as four Molotov cocktails, which were kept inside the church.
The suspect had no affiliation to the church, and had been living in the US for years, most recently working as a security guard in Las Vegas.
A field office spokesman said at Monday’s press conference that the FBI has opened a federal hate crime investigation against the shooter.
“There’s no place for hate in this country anymore, whether it’s race-based, religious-based, national-origin,” Barnes said Monday. “It is an expression of the ugliest part of our humanity that exists in our country today.”
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