Deadly Lunar New Year Shooting: California Suspect Found Dead
According to LA officials on the deadly Lunar New Year shooting: California suspect found dead.
Luna has verified that Tran was involved in a separate occurrence at a dance establishment in the adjacent city of Alhambra, which took place around 20 minutes after the Saturday night shooting in Monterey Park. According to witnesses, Tran entered the second venue holding a gun, which patrons were able to take from him. Thankfully, there were no injuries from gunfire and Tran fled the scene, as stated by Luna.
What LA officials stated?
A shooter took the lives of 10 individuals at a ballroom dance hall during a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration in the late hours of Saturday near Los Angeles before escaping and later taking his own life when confronted by the police on Sunday, according to officials. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna stated during a press conference on Sunday afternoon that the motive behind the shooting is currently unknown. The suspect was identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, who was in possession of a pistol with a high-capacity magazine. “We want to understand, we want to understand how something this tragic could occur,” Luna expressed to the media.
What Luna said?
According to Luna, Tran took his own life with a handgun on Sunday morning as police closed in on him while he was driving a white van in Torrance, located approximately 20 miles from the site of the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park. Luna reported that out of the ten victims, five were male and five were female, and their identities have not been released to the public. Additionally, ten more individuals were shot and seven of them are still hospitalized, with at least one person in critical condition, as reported by authorities.
The sheriff’s department released images of the suspect, which were presumably captured by surveillance cameras, showing him wearing glasses, a dark jacket, and a dark beanie hat with a white stripe. Luna also confirmed that Tran was involved in another incident at a dance venue in the neighboring city of Alhambra, around 20 minutes after the Saturday night shooting in Monterey Park.
According to witnesses, Tran entered the second venue holding a gun, which patrons were able to take from him. Thankfully, there were no injuries from gunfire and Tran fled the scene, as stated by Luna.
What captain Andrew Meyer said?
Upon arrival at the Monterey Park ballroom, police witnessed individuals “exiting the location in a state of panic,” according to department captain Andrew Meyer during a press briefing. The shooting occurred after 10 p.m. PST (0600 GMT on Sunday) near the location of a two-day Chinese Lunar New Year celebration, where many downtown streets were closed for events that attract thousands of people from all over Southern California. Police announced that the planned celebrations for Sunday were cancelled in response to the shooting.
The ambiance of Monterey Park on Sunday
On Sunday, people in Monterey Park looked at the many streets that were blocked off by police tape. The chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, Chester Chong, said the city is a quiet and peaceful place where everyone knows each other and helps each other. Monterey Park is about 7 miles away from downtown Los Angeles and has been a popular place for Chinese immigrants for many years. According to government statistics, about 65% of the people who live there are Asian. The city is also known for its many Chinese restaurants and shops. Chong said that some people called him the night before because they were worried that the crime was motivated by hate.
About Star Ballroom Dance Studio
The Star Ballroom Dance Studio opened in 1990. On its website, you can see many pictures of past Lunar New Year celebrations with people smiling and dancing in fancy clothes in the big, bright ballroom. Most of the people who go to the studio are middle-aged or older, but kids also attend dance classes for kids, according to a teacher at the studio who asked not to be named. The teacher said that the people who go to the studio are normal working people, some of them are retired and just looking for a way to exercise or socialize.
On the website, there was an advertisement for a Lunar New Year party on Saturday night that was going to run from 7:30 PM to 12:30 AM on Sunday. Some people thought the gunshots were fireworks for the party, according to Tiffany Chiu, 30, who was celebrating at her parents’ home near the ballroom. Tiffany said that a lot of older people live in the area, and it’s usually very quiet, so this is not something you expect to happen.
Prior shootings in Monterey Park
Footage taken by local news outlets showed people who were hurt, mostly middle-aged, being taken to the hospital on stretchers. President Joe Biden said he was sorry for the shootings in a statement and that he told his advisor on Homeland Security to help local authorities. Mass shootings happen often in the United States, and the shooting in Monterey Park was the worst since May 2022, when someone shot 19 students and 2 teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas. The worst shooting in California’s history was in 1984, when a shooter killed 21 people at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, which is near San Diego.
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