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2022 Laguna Woods shooting

Coordinates: 33°36′35″N 117°44′00″W / 33.60964°N 117.73338°W / 33.60964; -117.73338
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2022 Laguna Woods shooting
Part of mass shootings in the United States
Map
Location24301 El Toro Road, Laguna Woods, Orange County, California, United States
Coordinates33°36′35″N 117°44′00″W / 33.60964°N 117.73338°W / 33.60964; -117.73338
DateMay 15, 2022 (2022-05-15)
c. 1:26 p.m. (PDT)
Attack type
Mass shooting
WeaponsTwo handguns
Deaths1
Injured5
MotiveAnti-Taiwanese sentiment (suspected)
AccusedDavid Chou
Charges
*Hate crime enhancement

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

52-year-old John Cheng (Chinese: 鄭達志; pinyin: Zhèng Dázhì) was killed after trying to stop the shooter. He was a sports medicine physician based in Laguna Niguel[13][18] and 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

Orange County's District Attorney’s office and the FBI described the shooting as motivated by hatred against Taiwan.[20][21] Sheriff Don Barnes said that handwritten notes recovered from a vehicle allegedly belonging to Chou expressed his "hatred for the Taiwanese people" and belief that Taiwan should not be independent from China. Barnes surmised the sentiments began because of the way Chou was received and treated when living in Taiwan during his youth.[22][11]

Accused

David Wenwei Chou was born in 1953[23] in Taiwan as a second-generation waishengren and raised in a military dependents' village as his father was in the military.[24][25] He graduated from the Taichung First Senior High School in 1971[26] and completed a master's degree in the U.S. during the 1990s, after which he worked as a translator.[25] He also lectured at different schools such as the National Pingtung Institute of Commerce in 1994.[27]

According to his former neighbor, Chou was once a friendly owner of a Las Vegas apartment building.[28][29] In 2012 he suffered a nearly fatal attack by two tenants over rent that led to a loss of consciousness, a broken skull, elbow, and partial hearing loss.[30][31] He also suspected that police detectives tried to withhold a bag with his money before the prosecuter was involved and his bag was finally recovered.[31]

Acquaintances who knew Chou and his wife through the Taiwanese Association of Las Vegas and the local Taiwanese Presbyterian Church were surprised by his pro-unification stance, because most members there were pro-independent. They recalled his wife enjoying the groups' events, but Chou was very negative about life. He complained about Taiwan as well as the U.S. government and law enforcement.[32] 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.”[33][34][35] The association's spokesperson said he demonized people from Taiwan and has not been involved with the organization since the second half of 2019.[36][37]

During their divorce in 2021, his terminally ill wife returned to Taiwan for cancer treatment.[30][38] Chou, who had been described as a considerate landlord, sold the building.[39] He found occasional work as a security guard, but the income was not enough to pay rent. After firing a gun inside without injuring anyone, he was evicted in March 2022 and became homeless.[40] Several local churches turned him down for a place to stay.[39] Chou's mental stability appeared to diminish, telling his former neighbor "I just don’t care about my life anymore.”[29] Other tenants have found old photographs of Chou posing with a gun and laughing hysterically at a memorial for the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.[39]

A former roommate recalled a conversation two weeks before the shooting in which Chou described the Taiwanese government as corrupt and expressed a hatred towards those who supported it.[41] 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.[42][38]

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.[43] On June 17 prosecutors added hate crime enhancements to the murder and attempted murder charges.[44][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, also 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."[45]

Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen condemned the shooting, and offered condolences to the victims.[46] She asked for representatives in the US to fly to California to offer assistance. Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan's de facto ambassador, posted on Twitter that she was "shocked and saddened by the fatal shooting" and would mourn with the Taiwanese-American community and victims' families.[47] The Taiwanese Kuomintang also condemned the shooting.[48]

Some have blamed the incident on Beijing’s reunification rhetoric.[49][50] In Taiwan, DPP legislator Lin Ching-yi attributed the shooting to “genocidal ideology”, and 60 civic groups called for countries around the world to designate the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification as a terrorist organization.[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".[48] Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, 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 to memorialize and honor the victims of the shooting. A moment of silence was held for Dr. 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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