California shooting upends tranquil community: 'I don't feel safe'

"In my heart, I always felt the United States was the best country in the world," Xia, 50, said, just four months after leaving her home in Shenzhen Province to settle in the quiet enclave of Monterey Park close to Los Angeles.

"Now, I am so sad. I can't believe it. I don't want to stay here one more day. I don't feel safe. I want to move back to China," the retired math teacher said.

Monterey Park is part of a cluster of small cities that sit in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, all with a burgeoning Asian American community, mostly from China. The city of 60,000, where around 65% of residents are Asian, is consistently ranked as one of the best and most peaceful places to live in the United States.

On Sunday morning, after America's latest mass shooting, this time of revelers celebrating Lunar New Year in a Monterey Park ballroom, residents gathered in small groups in stunned disbelief and dismay.

The massacre ended what had been the city's first in-person celebration of the Lunar New Year in three years, since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The three-day event, one of California's biggest, is now canceled.

Chi's father, Jianzhong Chi, 35, said: "We just want this to end."

The Monterey Park community is close knit, city leaders said. On Saturday night, Muohan Chi started receiving hundreds of messages about the massacre in a family and friends chat group on her phone. That included graphic pictures of victims sprawled on the ballroom floor, although Chi said she does not know who took them.

Chester Chong, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, stood close to the ballroom, surrounded by yellow police tape, armed officers and beneath the noise of police helicopters.

"It's such a beautiful and quiet city," Chong said. "People here all know each other, help each other. This is terrible."