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A mother was arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of her 17-year-old son in a Rosemead hotel on Monday.
L.A. County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the Valley Hotel located in the 8700 block of Valley Boulevard after receiving a call about the incident from the boy's mother, 49-year-old Lai Hang, around 10:10 a.m., according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. Authorities found her son, George Hang, shot in his upper torso in a room inside the hotel. They also saw a woman crying next to George's body, and found a handgun on the floor, according to CBS Los Angeles.
George was pronounced dead at the scene.
Even though Lai called authorities at 10:10 a.m., hotel guests told deputies they heard two gunshots fire off about five hours earlier, around 5:30 a.m. that morning. However, nobody reported the gunshots to deputies until Lai called in about the shooting, L.A. County Sheriff Lt. Victor Lewandowski told NBC Los Angeles.
"I got scared, I got really scared. It sounded so close," hotel guest Jessie Diaz told ABC 7.
Jim Jimenez, a maintenance worker at the hotel who lives there with his son, John, was staying next door to the room the Hangs were in. The Jimenezes both woke up to the sound of two pops, but didn't think anything of it. "It sounded like fireworks, like two pops you’d let off on the 4th of July," Jim told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. "Now if it sounded like a real gunshot, I would have called the cops."
The Hangs, who are both Rosemead residents, checked into the Valley Hotel on Sunday, according to hotel workers. It's still not clear why the mother and son were staying at the hotel, or what the motive was behind the shooting. The investigation is ongoing.
Deputies arrested Hang and booked her on suspicion of murder. She is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is urged to contact the LASD’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.
