Huế Canh Tran, 72, kills 10 people in a rampage in Los Angeles.
Monterey Park, California:
Detectives probing why an elderly Asian immigrant shot and killed 11 people while celebrating the Lunar New Year at a California dance hall are probing whether jealousy or a personal dispute was behind the tragedy .
Hu Can Tran, 72, used a semi-automatic pistol Saturday night in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, killing men and women in their 50s, 60s and 70s. A man was shot in the parking lot.
He then went to another dance studio, where police say only the “heroic” actions of a young man who wrestled a weapon from him prevented another slaughter.
Hours later, Tran shot himself as police drove by in his white van.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Monday that Tran, who was arrested in 1994 for illegal possession of a firearm, had fired 42 rounds in the attack.
But, he said, there was still a lot of unknown.
“We still don’t have a motive, but we want to know the motive behind this tragic incident,” he told reporters.
“What prompted a madman to do this? We don’t know. But we intend to find out.”
The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that detectives were looking into Tran’s past connections to the two dance studios, with the personal relationship a key area of interest.
Monterey Park resident Chester Hong told AFP on Sunday he believed a domestic dispute over an invitation to a Lunar New Year’s Eve party may have been at the root of the attack.
“The wife was invited to attend the party (but) the husband cannot be invited,” he added. “And the husband can be upset and jealous.”
Luna confirmed that authorities were told that Tran may have known some of his victims, but said that there is currently no evidence that he was related to any.
‘hostile’
On Monday, photographs began to emerge of a man who immigrated from China, according to his marriage license, and who had been a regular at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in the past.
Tran’s ex-wife told CNN that the couple met there two decades ago when he offered her informal lessons.
The woman, who did not wish to be named, said they married shortly after, but the relationship did not last, with the divorce being finalized in 2006.
She said that Tran, who worked occasionally as a truck driver, was not violent but could be impatient.
A person who said he knew Tran previously said she would complain about dance teachers who, she claimed, “said bad things about her”, CNN reported.
“He was hostile to a lot of people there,” the person told the broadcaster.
Luna said detectives searched a mobile home he lived in in Hemet, 85 miles (140 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, and recovered a rifle, electronics and ammunition.
City police said earlier this month Tran pleaded guilty to “fraud, theft and poisoning of his family in the Los Angeles area 10 to 20 years ago.”
‘Her Last Dance’
Saturday night’s mass shooting was the worst in the United States since a teenage gunman in Euwalde, Texas, killed 21 people at an elementary school last May. All were children except two.
The death toll in Monterey Park, one of California’s largest Asian communities, rose to 11 on Monday after one of the people injured in the attack died in hospital.
Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California Medical Center said four victims were treated at the hospital and one remains in critical condition.
The coroner in Los Angeles said all of the people who died were in their 50s, 60s or 70s, and four of the dead were named Mai Nhan, 65, Valentino Alvero, 68, Xiuzhan Yu, 57, and Lillan, 63. . Took.
Nahan’s family said the tragedy is “still sinking in.”
“She spent so many years going to the dance studio in Monterey Park on the weekends,” said a statement.
“That’s what she loved to do. But unfairly, Saturday was her last dance.
“We are starting the Broken Lunar New Year.”
Amidst so much heartbreak, there were also stories of hope and heroism.
Security footage shows 26-year-old Brandon Tse grappling with Tran in the lobby of the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in the Alhambra as he tried to wrestle a MAC-10 9mm semiautomatic weapon from him.
“I lunged at him with both my hands, grabbed the weapon and struggled,” Tse told ABC.
“He was hitting me in the face, hitting me in the back of my head, I was trying to use my elbow to get the gun away from him.
“Eventually, at one point I was able to get the gun away from him, pushed him aside, made some distance, pointed the gun at him, scared him, yelled, ‘Get out of here. I’ll shoot . Get away. . Go.'”
Luna praised Tse, saying: “His heroic action … saved countless lives.”
“What a brave man he is.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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