She still finds it hard to believe that a massacre unfolded here, behind the white-and-green awning of the venue she passes daily to do her shopping.

“Monterey Park is a very safe neighborhood, where I can walk alone at night and where I don’t have to worry about gun violence,” she told AFP as police helicopters whirred overhead.

On Saturday night, a gunman entered the ballroom and killed five men and five women, and wounding at least 10 others, authorities said.

The mass killing – the deadliest US shooting since the Uvalde massacre, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed in an elementary school in Texas – took Monterey Park by surprise.

Just a few miles east of downtown Los Angeles, Monterey Park is considered the city’s “new Chinatown.”

No English

Residents here read newspapers in Mandarin, most business signs are in Chinese, and the majority of the inhabitants approached by an AFP journalist did not speak English.

“This area is one of the safest neighborhoods in Los Angeles County,” said John McKinney, a local prosecutor in the sprawling Southern California metropolis.

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