SF To Hold Vigil For Lunar New Year Gun Violence Victims

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A vigil for victims of the mass shootings in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park will be held Thursday night in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

The SF Vigil For Victims of Lunar New Year Gun Violence is scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Portsmouth Square (745 Kearny Street).

“Let’s mourn, heal & commit even more to ending #GunViolence,” Assemblymember Phil Ting tweeted.

Seven people were fatally shot Monday in the Half Moon Bay, less than 48 hours after a Monterey Park mass shooting left 11 dead.

Chunli Zhao, 66, is facing seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in connection with the Half Moon Bay shooting, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. Zhao is being held without bail.

If convicted, he faces life without parole, or the death penalty. Zhao made his first court appearance Wednesday but did not issue a plea. His arraignment was continued to Feb. 16.

The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office on Wednesday identified six of the seven Half Moon Bay fatalities as Yetao Bing, 43 (unknown residence), Qizhong Cheng, 66 of Half Moon Bay, Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50 (Moss Beach), Jingzhi Lu, 64 (Half Moon Bay), Zhishen Liu, 73 (San Francisco), and Aixiang Zhang, 74 (San Francisco).

Jose Romero Perez, a man his late 30s, has been identified as the seventh victim by The Mercury News.

Huu Can Tran, 72 of Hemet, the suspect in the Monterey Park shooting, was found dead in a cargo van after turning a gun on himself as authorities closed in on him, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

The shootings have hit an Asian American and Pacific Islanders community already besieged by the rise of anti-Asian hate in recent years.

The rise in anti-Asian hate, largely fueled by COVID-19 misinformation, prompted the Department of Justice in 2021 to enact the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, a measure that aimed to raise awareness of hate crimes during the pandemic.

Anti-Asian hate crimes surged 164 percent during the first year of the pandemic, according to a study conducted by Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

San Francisco experienced a 567 percent year-over-year spike in anti-Asian incidents from nine in 2020 to 60 the next year, The Guardian reports.

After years of experiencing an external threat, the AAPI community now finds itself confronting a new threat from within.

That the dual tragedies occurred at a time when the Golden State is officially commemorating the Lunar New Year as a state holiday for the first time in California history.

“Unfortunately, this has been taken away from us,” Assemblymember Evan Low told NBC Bay Area.

“We’re dealt with addressing this stark reality that of firearms devastating our community, so of course this has an impact on the psyche and the spirit of us as an AAPI community.”

“Will we be able to be safe and comfortable in the coming weeks with respect to Lunar New Year gatherings in the Bay Area?”