The hunt for a gunman who killed 10 people at a ballroom dance club during Lunar New Year celebrations ended Sunday when authorities found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the van he used to flee after people thwarted his attempt at a second shooting.Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna identified the man as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran and said no other suspects were at large.
Speaking at an evening news conference, he added that the motive remained unclear for the attack, which wounded 10 more.Luna did not have the exact ages of the victims but said they all appeared to be over 50.
Seven of the wounded people remained in the hospital, he said.The sheriff added that the suspect was carrying what he described as a semi-automatic pistol with an extended magazine, and a second handgun was discovered in the van where Tran was found dead.The shooting late Saturday in the predominantly Asian American community of Monterey Park cast a shadow over the New Years festivities and sent a wave of fear through Asian American communities in the Los Angeles area. Other cities sent extra officers to watch over the celebrations.Also speaking at the news conference, Congresswoman Judy Chu said she still has questions about the attack but hopes residents now feel safe.“The community was in fear thinking that they should not go to any events because there was an active shooter,” Chu said, adding, “You are no longer in danger.” “What was the motive for this shooter?” she said.
“Did he have a mental illness? Was he a domestic violence abuser? How did he gets these guns and was it through legal means or not?” Earlier Sunday, law enforcement officials swarmed and entered the van after surrounding it for hours before going in.A person’s body appeared to be slumped over the wheel and was later removed from the vehicle.Luna previously released photos of an Asian man who was believed to be the suspect.The van was found in Torrance, another community home to many Asian Americans, about 22 miles (34.5 kilometers) from that second location.Luna said the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park left five women and five men dead and wounded another 10 people.Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese said Sunday evening that within three minutes of receiving the call, officers arrived on the scene.
There, they found extensive carnage inside and people trying to flee through all the doors.“When they came into the parking lot it, was chaos,” Wiese said.About 20 to 30 minutes after the first attack, the gunman entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra. But people wrested the weapon away from him before he fled, according to Luna.Hours earlier, Luna said authorities were looking for a white van after witnesses reported seeing the suspect flee from Alhambra in such a vehicle.Members of a SWAT team entered the van a short time later and looked through its contents before walking away.The massacre was the nation’s fifth mass killing this month. It was also the deadliest attack since May 24, when 21 people were killed in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
