Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Second Mass Shooting In California: 7 Dead In Half Moon Bay
Los Angeles Times: Half Moon Bay Shootings: Gunman Kills 7 People In The Second California Massacre In 3 Days
At least seven people were killed in a pair of related shootings that have rocked the beach-side community of Half Moon Bay, an act of violence that comes just two days after 11 people were killed in another mass shooting in Monterey Park. A 67-year-old resident of the community is suspected of opening fire at two rural locations about a mile distant, shooting some of the victims in front of children who lived nearby and had recently been released from school. “This kind of shooting is horrific; it’s a tragedy we hear about too often,” San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said. “For children to witness this is unspeakable.” (Hernandez, Lin, Rust and Mejia, 1/23)
San Francisco Chronicle: Half Moon Bay Mass Shooting: 7 Dead And One Injured
“For children to witness this is unspeakable,” Corpus said. “This is a devastating tragedy for this community and the many families touched by this unspeakable act of violence.” The sheriff opened a family reunification center at IDES Hall at 735 Main St. Inside, about 35 people, including a group of children, waited for word more than six hours after the shootings, the room quiet except for one woman sobbing in a corner. Volunteers handed out food and cans of soda as well as blankets. (Umanzor, Michanec, Tucker, and Swan, 1/23)
The Wall Street Journal: We Never Expected This To Happen Here, Says Half Moon Bay City
The mayor of Half Moon Bay, where two related shootings left seven people dead on Monday, said her community was completely shocked by events of a kind it would never have expected in the coastal Californian city. “My colleagues and I on the Half Moon Bay City Council are appalled and saddened at this terrible incident, which has completely shocked our community,” said Mayor Deborah Penrose. A statement on behalf of the city said that the shootings had shaken everyone there to the core. “It’s something that we would never expect to happen here,” the statement said. (Sugden, 1/24)
Both gunmen were older than the typical mass shooter —
Reuters: California Staggered By Deadly Back-To-Back Mass Shootings
The two latest shootings were notable for the age of the suspects, one in his late 60s, another in his early 70s. A database of 185 mass shootings between 1966 and 2022 maintained by the nonprofit Violence Project includes just one carried out by someone 70 or older - a retired miner who killed five people in Kentucky in 1981. (Reid and Trotta, 1/24)
NPR: The Suspected Monterey Park Attacker Was 72. Here's Why Older Shooters Are Rare
Identifying the average age of mass shooters in the U.S. is tricky given there's no set definition of what a "mass shooting" entails and trackers vary in how far back their data reaches. But no matter which measure you look at, the age of shooters tends to skew lower. The RAND corporation, a government-funded think tank, says that between 1976 and 2018, 82% of all mass shooters in the U.S. were under the age of 45. (Olson, 1/24)
In updates on the Monterey Park massacre —
KTLA: Monterey Park Gunman Was Making Silencers, Had Stockpiled Ammunition, Sheriff Says
The man accused of gunning down 11 people and wounding nine others in Monterey Park, California had been stockpiling ammunition and was making homemade gun silencers inside his home, authorities revealed Monday. ... Inside, investigators found a .308 caliber rifle, items indicating he was manufacturing homemade firearm suppressors, “numerous electronic devices” including cell phones and computers, and unknown amount of .308 and 9mm caliber ammunition, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at news conference. (DuBose and Sternfield, 1/23)
Los Angeles Times: Not Invited To The Dance: Possible Monterey Park Shooting Motive
The investigation into the Monterey Park mass shooting is focused on previous interactions the gunman had with the two dance studios he targeted and whether jealousy over a relationship was a motive, according to law enforcement sources. ... Law enforcement sources also believe 72-year-old Huu Can Tran was having unspecified emotional problems that had been getting worse in the weeks before the shooting. He showed up at the Hemet Police Department lobby twice this month, on Jan. 7 and 9, making allegations of fraud and theft and saying that his family had tried to poison him in the L.A. area 10 to 20 years ago, Hemet police spokesperson Alan Reyes said. (Winton, Fry, Tchekmedyian, Smith, Lin, Park, Goldberg and Martinez, 1/23)
At least 39 people have died in six mass killings in fewer than three weeks —
AP: 7 Dead As California Mourns 3rd Mass Killing In 8 Days
The new year has brought a shocking string of mass killings in the U.S. — six in less than three weeks, accounting for 39 deaths. Three have occurred in California since Jan. 16, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. The database tracks every mass killing — defined as four dead not including the offender — committed in the U.S. since 2006. (Chiu and Rodriguez, 1/24)
