Published
4 years agoon
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The party “was not described as being out of control in any way. It was just a family event,” Hall said.
The men who died were ages 23 to 40, according to the Fresno County Coroner’s Office.
Three were found dead when emergency crews arrived. A fourth person died at a hospital. Six others were hospitalized in critical condition but expected to survive, authorities said.
Popular Hmong singer Xy Lee was among the four men killed, according to Hmong media.
In addition, the Hmong Talk Facebook page reported that singer JN Vang was shot and underwent surgery Sunday night.
Police work at the scene of a shooting, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019, in southeast Fresno. Four people were killed and six more critically injured. Suspects sneaked into the backyard and fired into the crowd, police said. (Larry Valenzuela/The Fresno Bee via AP)
Hall said police were investigating whether the shooting was connected to a recent disturbance involving some of the people at the party. He also announced the establishment of an Asian gang task force ahead of the Hmong New Year, out of concern about the possibility of more violence.
California has the nation’s highest population of Hmong, a Southeast Asian ethnic minority.
Residents complained that other shootings have happened recently in the same neighborhood. The home where the attack took place is near an industrial area with commercial buildings near the Fresno airport.
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Calvin Gatison, who lives on the same block, said the street had been peaceful for years, but at least two shootings happened in recent weeks.
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It was the second fatal gun attack Sunday in Fresno. Randy Xiong, 28, was shot to death early Sunday at a home on the 3900 block of East Dwight Avenue, according to the coroner’s office. Police have not said whether the incidents could be connected.
The killings came after two other mass shootings in California in what has been an especially violent year for the state.
Last Thursday, a 16-year-old student at a Southern California high school in the city of Santa Clarita outside Los Angeles shot and killed two classmates and wounded three other teens before shooting himself in the head. He died the next day.
And on Saturday, police in San Diego said a husband shot and killed his wife and three of their sons before killing himself. A fourth son wounded in the shooting was on life support on Sunday, family members said.
There have been eight mass killings in California so far this year, claiming the lives of 33 people, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University.
That’s a dramatic increase from previous years, with eight mass killings in the state for all of 2016-2018.
The increase mirrors the national trend in 2019. There have been 39 mass killings this year in the United States, compared with 25 in 2018, according to the database, which tracks homicides where four or more people are killed, not including the offender.
(GV Wire contributed to this report.)
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