Orange County Sheriff calls victim in church shooting a 'hero'
During a press conference on Monday, Orange County, Calif., Sheriff Don Barnes said a shooting at a church in Laguna Woods on Sunday was a “politically motivated hate incident” aimed at its Taiwanese members. Barnes also praised the “heroic actions” of Dr. John Cheung, the only victim to die of his injuries from the shooting. Barnes said Cheung charged the suspect and attempted to disarm him, which allowed others to subdue the alleged shooter. He said that without Cheung’s actions, there’s “no doubt that there’d be numerous additional victims in this crime.”
Video Transcript
DON BARNES: First, I want to start with the individual involved in this. This is an isolated incident. We do know that the individual-- at least every information that we have to this date shows that this individual was acting alone. And we do know that based on information we've collected-- and I'm not going to go into the details of that evidence-- was a politically motivated hate incident. A grievance that this individual had between himself and the Taiwanese community at large.
Yesterday afternoon, members of the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church, who shared a space with Geneva Presbyterian Church since 2009, were having a lunch banquet following their church service. The banquet was celebrating the return of one of their pastors who had recently returned from a mission trip from Taiwan.
There were approximately 50 people attending the banquet at that time. The individual involved in this heinous crime is David Cheung, 68, of Las Vegas. He does have one family member living in the United States, but his wife and son are currently not residing in the United States.
He lived in a residence by himself-- or at least with other people, but he rented a room in that location. It didn't have-- did not have other family members residing with him. It is believed that Mr-- the suspect involved. I'm sorry, I'm not going to say his name again. The suspect involved drove to Orange County on Saturday. Was in the area around the church we were investigating. And did come to church after their morning service.
The suspect was not a regular attendee of that church, and there are no known ties or affiliations with that church other than his appearance there yesterday. During the lunch, the individual involved, the suspect, was able to secure the doors within the church with chains and tried to disable locks within the church with superglue.
He started shooting inside the building and five people were wounded by gunshots. And Mr. Cheung, as I mentioned, lost his life. All the parishioners attending were Asian-Americans ranging in age from 66 years old to 92 years old. Two of the victims are a married couple in their mid 80s.
Dr. Cheung, 52, of Laguna Niguel took heroic actions that day. In fact, I want to pause and just tell you that Dr. Cheung is a hero in this incident. Based on statements from the witnesses and corroborated by other means, it is known that Dr. Cheung charged the individual, the suspect.
Attempted to disarm him, which allowed other parishioners to then intercede taking the suspect into custody. Without the actions of Dr. Cheung, it is no doubt that there have been numerous additional victims in this crime. Unfortunately, after Dr. Cheung tackled the suspect, he was hit by gunshots and he was pronounced deceased at the scene.
During the struggle, other parishioners got involved. A pastor threw a chair at the subject and they were able to render him subdued and tied him for others before law enforcement was able to arrive on scene.
