2022 Laguna Woods shooting
Part of mass shootings in the United States
Location	24301 El Toro Road, Laguna Woods, Orange County, California, United States
Coordinates	33°36′35″N 117°44′00″W / 33.60964°N 117.73338°W / 33.60964; -117.73338
Date	May 15, 2022 (2022-05-15) c. 1:26 p.m. (PDT)
Attack type	Mass shooting
Weapons	Two handguns
Deaths	1
Injured	5
Motive	Anti-Taiwanese sentiment (suspected)
Accused	David Chou
Charges	Murder Attempted murder (5 counts) Possession of explosive device (4 counts)

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 political hatred of Taiwan and the Taiwanese people.^[3][4] He has been charged with one count of murder, five counts of attempted murder, and four counts of possession of an explosive device.^[5]

Shooting

The shooter attacked during a luncheon after the church service.^[6] There were between 30 and 40 people inside the church at the time.^[7]

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.^[8] Witnesses said he mingled with other attendees^[9] and spoke to them in Taiwanese Hokkien.^[10] Pastor Billy Chang said the man sat in the back of the sanctuary and was reading a newspaper throughout the entire sermon.^[6]

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.^[6][11] 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.^[12][6] As the shooter attempted to reload his weapon, Chang hit the shooter on the head with a chair.^[11][13] Following which, several attendees tackled him and then hogtied him with an extension cord and confiscated two handguns, which were recovered by police.^[13][14][15] After he complained, those holding the shooter down eased up on the force of restraint to allow him to breathe.^[16]

Police were alerted at about 1:26 p.m.^[14] The doors were chained shut and their locks glued. Four items similar to Molotov cocktails were stored inside.^[3]

Victims

The dead victim, 52-year-old John Cheng (Chinese: 鄭達志; pinyin: Zhèng Dázhì),^[17] was a sports medicine physician based in Laguna Niguel.^[12] He was married with a son and a daughter.^[18] 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.^[19]

Investigation

Local authorities including Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes and Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer have described the shooting as a hate crime that was motivated by hatred against Taiwan.^{[7][20][21][12]} The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has been assisting the Orange County Sheriff's Department with their investigation^[22][23] and has also been conducting its own investigation into the incident,^[24][25] also said that Chou was motivated by "some kind of hate."^[12]

Barnes said that handwritten notes recovered from a vehicle Chou allegedly used for the attack documented his motives for perpetrating the mass shooting; these included his belief that Taiwan should not be independent from China and his "hatred for the Taiwanese people", which, Barnes surmised, stemmed from his alienation from Taiwanese society when he lived in Taiwan.^[26][27][28] Spitzer said that Chou may face the death penalty if convicted for the murder of Cheng and additional hate crime charges pending the outcome of the FBI's own investigation.^[29]

After the shooting, the World Journal reports that Chou had mailed them a manifesto titled Diary of the Independence-Slaying Angel (滅獨天使日記), in the form of seven booklets and one flash drive. The package arrived on May 16. The journal decided against publishing the writing after the shooting and turned it over to the police.^[30][31]

Accused

David Wenwei Chou was born in 1953^[32] in Taiwan as a second-generation waishengren and raised in a military dependents' village^[33][34] near Taichung alongside four siblings.^[35] 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.^[34] In 1994, he was a lecturer at the National Pingtung Institute of Commerce for one year.^[36]

Chou has taught bartending in Taiwan and mainland China and authored several publications.^[19] He was pictured in attendance in a 2019 article about the founding of the Las Vegas chapter of the National Association for China's Peaceful Unification, which characterized him as a retired professor.^[18][37][38] The association's cofounder, Gu Yawen, said Chou appeared extremist and has not been involved with the organization since the second half of 2019.^[19] The current leader of the local branch, Jenny Yoo, said that the future shooter had shown up at the meal uninvited, and that she had prevented the him from joining the organization, as he demonized Taiwanese people and "no longer saw people from Taiwan as people".^[39] The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan had played a significant role in the island's democratization.^[40] Officials have not found any connection between Chou and the church in Laguna Woods, however.^[41] After retirement, he sometimes worked as a security guard in Las Vegas, where two 9mm pistols were purchased legally.^[12] In early 2022, Chou left Las Vegas for Los Angeles; his wife had already returned to Taiwan in 2021 due to an illness and is reported to be terminally ill.^[19][31] Chou also has a son and a daughter.^[34]

According to his former neighbor, Chou had been a pleasant man and the owner of a Las Vegas apartment building, but he had suffered serious injuries in a nearly fatal attack by some tenants.^[31] On April 3, 2012, Chou was severely beaten by two tenants who lured him into an apartment, pretending to pay rent. He fell conscious from the attack, lost two liters of blood, suffered a serious head injury, a broken left elbow, and hearing loss in his right ear, and needed over 30 stitches on his head and face, and 8 screws in his elbow. The assailants were caught three days later. Chou also suspected that the police detectives tried to steal his money. He asked them about his bag containing the rent that he had collected from other tenants. They first told him that there was no money in the bag and a week later that the bag had been sent to the prosecutor's office. Chou later asked the prosecutor, who denied having received it. After the prosecutor followed up with the detectives, they admitted they still had the bag and the money was there, which was finally returned to Chou.^[42] After Chou sold the apartment, he was evicted for firing a gun inside, although no one was hurt from that incident. The neighbor said his life unraveled after his wife left.^[31] He might have become homeless, and his mental ability also appeared to have diminished.^[12] His former roommate described him as "quiet and kind", mentioning Taiwan only once, two weeks before the shooting, to complain about the politics and corruption there.^[43][44]

Legal proceedings

Chou first appeared in court on May 17, while being held on $1 million bond. In relation to Cheng's death, Chou is facing the most serious charge of one count of murder by firearm, which carries either the death penalty or life imprisonment. Chou also faces five charges of attempted murder for injuring the five elderly survivors, as well as four counts of unlawful possession of explosives, and a special circumstances allegation of lying in wait.^[9][8]

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, 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 the political representatives in the US to fly to California to provide assistance. Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan's de facto ambassador, posted on Twitter that she was "shocked and saddened by the fatal shooting at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in California", and she expressed she would mourn together with the Taiwanese-American community and families of the victims.^[47] The Taiwanese Kuomintang issued a statement condemning the shooting without commenting on Chou's political positions.^[26]

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".^[26] Chinese Embassy in Washington spokesperson Liu Pengyu said: "We express our condolences to the victims and sincere sympathy to the bereaved families and the injured."^[11]

On May 21, local elected officials and religious leaders gathered at the church where the shooting occurred to memorialize and honor the victims of the shooting. A moment of silence was held for the deceased victim, John 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.^[48]

See also

• List of mass shootings in the United States in 2022
• List of shootings in California

References