"Tragedy Upon Tragedy": 9 Killed In 3 More US Shootings

Nine people, including two students, have died in three shooting incidents in the US, news agency AFP reported today.

The incidents of gun violence in north California and Iowa come less than 48 hours after a gunman opened fire at a Chinese New Year dance event in Los Angeles and left 11 dead. The shooter, identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, shot himself dead when surrounded by cops.

Two shootings were reported at farms in northern California's Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco. Seven people died and three have been critically injured. Police said a 67-year-old local resident named Chunli Zhao had been taken into custody.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was in Monterey Park where Saturday's shooting took place, took to Twitter moments after news broke of the new incidents. "At the hospital meeting with victims of a mass shooting when I get pulled away to be briefed about another shooting. This time in Half Moon Bay. Tragedy upon tragedy."

Another shooting was reported at Des Moines in Iowa. The incident took place at Starts Right Here, which runs an educational mentorship programme for at-risk youths. Two students were killed and three people wounded, two of them critically.

Des Moine police said in a statement that two teenagers, aged 18 and 16, died after being hospitalised with critical injuries. William Holmes, the 49-year-old founder-CEO of Starts Right Here, is in a critical condition.

The back-to-back incidents come against the backdrop of an alarming rise in gun violence in the US and a raging debate over easy access to firearms.

The last year saw as many as 647 incidents of mass shooting, with at least four people shot or killed by a shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

More than 44,000 people died from gunshot wounds in 2022 across the US, more than half of which were suicides.

San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said the shootings at Half Moon Bay "was in the afternoon when kids were out of school and for children to witnesses it is unspeakable". She said a semi-automatic handgun was found in Zhao's vehicle.

Reports said the dead are Chinese farmworkers, and that Zhao had worked at one of the farms.