monterey park mass shooting

‘He Didn't Answer': Monterey Park Survivor Recalls Moment When Dance Partner Died

Survivor who was inside dance hall during Monterey Park mass shooting recalls the moment she realized her dance partner was dead.

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Days after the shooting in Monterey Park, the people most impacted are slowly trying to heal and move forward.

One woman who was at the dance hall Saturday enjoying what she loves to do, dance, owns a donut shop in Arcadia. Though she survived her dance partner did not.

Now she's trying to help bury her friend as she mourns his loss. Her donut shop, Arcadia Donuts remains closed, nearly four days after the shooting at the dance hall.

"My husband wanted me to open and I said 'I have no mood,'" said Shally, who did not want to be further identified.

Shally is a survivor and she was there Saturday night with her longtime dance partner Yu Kao, known as Andy.

"He's a good man," Shally said.

In the most joyous place she witnessed the most violent scene. She saw the shooter start firing.

"The sound is like a gunshot, shooting. Like 'boom, boom, boom,' like this," Shally said. "That time I pull my partner, something is wrong. let's go now. we go hide under the table. Under the table we hide."

When the shooter left, she tried to leave with Andy.

"I tell my partner 'wake up now, wake up now, everything is OK,'" Shally said. "He didn't answer, he did not respond, he did not respond at all."

Shally immediately called her husband Francois.

"So I pick up the phone and she said 'I'm OK, I'm OK' and I go 'why are you Ok?' I don't understand why she told me that," said Francois, Shally's husband.

But then she broke the news.

"She said 'I tried to wake up Andy but he didn't respond,'" Francois said. "I said 'Andy not my Andy, my friend Andy,' and she said 'yes, your friend.'"

Andy was 72-years-old, one of 11 people killed.

"I've known him for three years, he was very nice," Francois said.

When Arcadia Donuts re-opens, Thursday, they'll begin a three-day fundraiser for Andy. They think that's the least they can do, honoring this man who brought so much joy to their life.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. a fundraiser will be held and 100% of the proceeds will go to help pay for the funeral expenses.

It is one of the many efforts in the community honoring people who were killed.

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