Fil-Ams shocked by massacre in San Bernardino

A victim is wheeled away on a stretcher following a shooting that killed multiple people at a social services facility, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif. (David Bauman/The Press-Enterprise via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT

LOS ANGELES—Many Filipino-Americans were left in shock after shooters armed with long guns opened fire inside a social services center in San Bernardino on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila).

San Bernardino resident Clemen Bacani recalled the chaos in the largely working class community 100 kilometers east of Los Angeles as the attackers carried out the mass shooting.

“There were cops everywhere and there was shock on people’s faces,” said Bacani, who lives about 10 kilometers from the Inland Regional Center, site of the attack.

“Why would they attack a facility that serves people with disabilities?” asked Bacani, who drove around road barricades to get home. “It was insanity.”

He was worried about his sister, Glecy Bacani Villalobos, a school nurse whose office at the San Bernardino Unified School District was locked down after the shooting.

Josephine Mendez, who owns a Filipino restaurant in the neighboring city of Colton, anxiously waited for her 14-year-old son to be released from The Rock Christian School, two blocks from the Inland Regional Center. The school served as an evacuation center for the employees who fled the site of the shooting.

“I was very worried. We couldn’t get inside the campus,” she said.

When the school lockdown was lifted, Mendez picked up her son and returned to her restaurant to feed Fil-Am residents stranded when roads were closed during the manhunt for the attackers.

“There were about 15 Filipinos at my restaurant who waited for the roads to reopen,” she said. “We were all terrified.”

Emergency room

Holly Ann Olalia, a 23-year-old Filipino-American beauty queen and a Nursing student, said her class at Loma Linda University Medical Center was canceled after the facility received a bomb threat.

“It was scary,” said Olalia, who won the Miss Philippines USA-Tourism title in 2013. “The emergency room was packed.” Many of the victims were brought there for treatment.

Olalia said she was still trying to comprehend what happened. “Everyone thought (terrorists) were going to attack the bigger cities, like Los Angeles, not San Bernardino,” she said.

52K Fil-Am residents

San Bernardino is the largest city in San Bernardino County, home to more than 52,000 Fil-Ams.

“Who would think of doing such a thing and attacking that kind of facility?” asked musician Malou Toler, who used to live in the San Bernardino area.

Toler said the physical therapist of her friend’s autistic son, who receives treatment at the Inland Regional Center, was one of the 14 fatalities.

The Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles said there were no reports of Fil-Ams killed or injured in the shooting.

“We continue to monitor the situation,” Cesar Angeles, the consulate information officer, told the Inquirer.