MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) — Authorities looked for a motive for the gunman who killed 10 individuals at a Los Angeles-area ballroom dance membership throughout Lunar New Yr celebrations, slayings that despatched a wave of fear via Asian American communities and forged a shadow over festivities nationwide.
The suspect, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, was discovered lifeless of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday within the van that authorities say he used to flee after being prevented from attacking one other dance membership. The New York Occasions reported {that a} man whose household runs that venue wrested the gun from the assailant.
The bloodbath in Monterey Park was the nation’s fifth mass killing this month — and it struck certainly one of California’s largest celebrations of a vacation noticed in lots of Asian cultures, dealing one other blow to a neighborhood that has been the goal of high-profile violence lately.
It was additionally the deadliest assault since Might 24, when 21 individuals have been killed in an elementary college in Uvalde, Texas.
Damian Dovarganes by way of Related Press
No different suspects have been at giant, based on Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna. He mentioned the motive remained unclear for the assault, which wounded 10 individuals, seven of whom have been nonetheless hospitalized. Talking at a Sunday night information convention, the sheriff mentioned he didn’t have their precise ages however that the entire individuals killed seemed to be over 50.
The suspect was carrying what Luna described as a semi-automatic pistol with an prolonged journal, and a second handgun was found within the van the place Tran died.
Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese mentioned Sunday night that inside three minutes of receiving the decision, officers arrived on the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park. There, they discovered carnage inside and other people attempting to flee via all of the doorways.
“When they came into the parking lot it, was chaos,” Wiese mentioned.
Jae C. Hong by way of Related Press
About 20 to half-hour after the primary assault, the gunman entered the Lai Lai Ballroom within the close by metropolis of Alhambra. However, Luna mentioned, two individuals wrested the weapon away from him.
The Occasions reported that after the gunman entered the membership, he pointed his weapon at Brandon Tsay, who works just a few days per week on the venue his grandparents began. Tsay mentioned he acted on intuition, lunging to seize the gun after getting the sensation the gunman was trying to damage individuals. The 2 struggled earlier than Tsay mentioned he bought management of the weapon.
Whereas police mentioned a couple of particular person was concerned, Tsay and his household mentioned safety footage confirmed that the 26-year-old laptop coder prevented additional tragedy alone.
Witnesses mentioned the suspect then fled in a white van.
The van was present in Torrance, one other neighborhood house to many Asian People, about 22 miles (35 kilometers) from that second location.
After surrounding the automobile for hours, regulation enforcement officers swarmed and entered it. An individual’s physique seemed to be slumped over the wheel and was later eliminated. Members of a SWAT group regarded via the van’s contents earlier than strolling away.
Damian Dovarganes by way of Related Press
The sheriff’s division earlier launched photographs of an Asian man believed to be the suspect, apparently taken from a safety digicam.
Congresswoman Judy Chu mentioned she nonetheless has questions in regards to the assault however hopes residents now really feel secure.
“The community was in fear thinking that they should not go to any events because there was an active shooter,” Chu mentioned, talking at Sunday’s information convention.
“What was the motive for this shooter?” she mentioned. “Did he have a mental illness? Was he a domestic violence abuser? How did he get these guns and was it through legal means or not?”
Damian Dovarganes by way of Related Press
Monterey Park is a metropolis of about 60,000 individuals on the japanese fringe of Los Angeles and consists largely of Asian immigrants from China or first-generation Asian People. The capturing occurred within the coronary heart of its downtown the place crimson lanterns embellished the streets for the Lunar New Yr festivities. A police automotive was parked close to a big banner that proclaimed “Happy Year of the Rabbit!”
Jae C. Hong by way of Related Press
The celebration in Monterey Park is certainly one of California’s largest. Two days of festivities, which have been attended by as many as 100,000 individuals in previous years, have been deliberate. However officers canceled Sunday’s occasions following the capturing.
Tony Lai, 35, of Monterey Park was shocked when he got here out for his early morning stroll to study that the noises he heard within the night time have been gunshots.
“I thought maybe it was fireworks. I thought maybe it had something to do with Lunar New Year,” he mentioned. “And we don’t even get a lot of fireworks here. It’s weird to see this. It’s really safe here. We’re right in the middle of the city, but it’s really safe.”
Jae C. Hong by way of Related Press
An Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings within the U.S. reveals that 2022 was one of many nation’s worst years with 42 such assaults — the second-highest quantity because the creation of the tracker in 2006. The database defines a mass killing as 4 individuals killed, not together with the perpetrator.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Monterey Park on Sunday, assembly with victims and their households in addition to native officers.
President Joe Biden and Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland have been briefed on the state of affairs, aides mentioned. Biden mentioned he and first girl Jill Biden have been pondering of these killed and wounded.
The Star Ballroom Dance Studio’s web site mentioned it was internet hosting an occasion Saturday referred to as “Star Night” from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The studio is just a few blocks from metropolis corridor on Monterey Park’s primary thoroughfare of Garvey Avenue, which is dotted with strip malls of small companies whose indicators are in each English and Chinese language. Cantonese and Mandarin are each broadly spoken, Chinese language holidays are celebrated and Chinese language movies are screened commonly within the metropolis.
Wynn Liaw, 57, who lives about two blocks from the Monterey Park studio, mentioned she was shocked that such a criminal offense would occur, particularly throughout Lunar New Yr’s celebrations.
“Chinese people, they consider Chinese New Year very, very special” — a time when “you don’t do anything that will bring bad luck the entire year,” she mentioned.
AP journalists Andrew Dalton, Jae C. Hong and Eugene Garcia contributed. AP journalist Julie Watson contributed from San Diego.
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