Henry Lo, former Monterey Park mayor and current city councilmember, was in the midst of celebration when another place he considered a home fell victim to another instance of senseless violence.
Lo spent four years — 1993 to 1997 — in Maine while attending Colby College, just an hour outside of Lewiston, where a gunman on Wednesday, Oct. 25, went on a shooting rampage, killing 18 people and wounding 13.
Reading the news while visiting Taiwan for its Pride celebration, Lo said he felt the same wave of despair that came over him this past January, when 11 people were slain at Star Ballroom Dance Studio shooting on Garvey Avenue amid the city’s Lunar New Year celebration.
“When I got the text about the shooting, I was out that evening for Lunar New Year’s Eve, and this triggers the same emotions,” he said. “I am in shock that this was happening in a place that I knew, where people often would leave their doors unlocked, because there was always a sense of community and safety.”
Now — as of Thursday morning — it was an area on lockdown amid a massive hunt to arrest the man suspected of the shooting, who was considered armed and dangerous.
The hunt itself echoed the Monterey Park response, as authorities in January fanned out for a manhunt that ended the day after the shooting when the gunman killed himself inside a van miles away in Torrance.
Lo said he often visited Lewiston on the weekends with his friends in college. Waterville, where Colby College sits, is roughly half the size of Lewiston, and so students would visit the bigger town to shop, eat and socialize. Lo said that one of his fondest memories was driving through the lush, green state, passing by the tiny towns and stopping in Lewiston for ice cream.
“It just always is so lovely and picturesque,” Lo said. “I always understood why it was such a popular tourist space, as well. I mean, people go there in the summertime because it made such a beautiful place.”
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