By ANDREW DALTON and JAE C. HONG
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) — The hunt for a gunman who killed 10 folks at a ballroom dance membership throughout Lunar New Year celebrations ended Sunday when authorities discovered him lifeless of a self-inflicted gunshot wound contained in the van by which he fled after a second capturing was thwarted.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna recognized the person as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran and mentioned no different suspects have been at massive. Speaking at a night information convention, Luna mentioned the motive for the assault remained unclear. Ten folks have been additionally wounded, seven of whom have been nonetheless within the hospital.
Luna didn’t have the precise ages of the victims however mentioned all of them seemed to be over 50.
The sheriff added that the suspect was carrying what he described as a semi-automatic pistol with an prolonged journal, and a second handgun was found within the van the place Tran was discovered lifeless.
The capturing late Saturday within the predominantly Asian American group of Monterey Park despatched a wave of worry by way of Asian American communities within the Los Angeles space. The metropolis deliberate two days of festivities, which have been attended by as many as 100,000 folks in previous years, however officers canceled Sunday’s occasions following the capturing. Other cities despatched further officers to observe over the celebrations.
Earlier Sunday, legislation enforcement officers surrounded the van for hours earlier than swarming and coming into the automobile. An individual’s physique seemed to be slumped over the wheel and was later faraway from the automobile.
Luna mentioned the capturing was on the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park.
Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese mentioned Sunday night that officers arrived inside three minutes of receiving the decision. They discovered carnage contained in the membership and other people attempting to flee by way of all of the doorways.
“When they came into the parking lot, it was chaos,” Wiese mentioned.
About 20 to half-hour after the primary assault, the gunman entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in close by Alhambra. But folks there wrested the weapon away from him and he fled, in response to Luna.
He mentioned authorities started searching for a white van after witnesses reported seeing the suspect flee from Alhambra in such a automobile.
During the search, Luna launched photos from the second location of an Asian man who was believed to be the suspect, apparently from a surveillance digicam.
The van was present in Torrance, one other group that’s house to many Asian Americans, about 22 miles (34.5 kilometers) from the location of the tried second capturing.
Also talking on the information convention, Congresswoman Judy Chu mentioned she nonetheless has questions concerning the assault however hopes residents now really feel protected.
“The community was in fear thinking that they should not go to any events because there was an active shooter,” Chu mentioned, including, “You are no longer in danger.”
“What was the motive for this shooter?” she mentioned. “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?”
The bloodbath was the nation’s fifth mass killing this month. It was additionally the deadliest assault since May 24, when 21 folks have been killed in an elementary faculty in Uvalde, Texas.
An Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings within the U.S. exhibits 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 folks killed, not together with the perpetrator.
Monterey Park is a metropolis of about 60,000 folks on the japanese fringe of Los Angeles and consists principally of Asian immigrants from China or first-generation Asian Americans. The capturing occurred within the coronary heart of its downtown, the place pink lanterns adorned the streets for the Lunar New Year festivities. A police automotive was parked close to a big banner that proclaimed “Happy Year of the Rabbit!”
The Star Ballroom Dance Studio is a number of blocks from metropolis corridor on Monterey Park’s predominant thoroughfare, Garvey Avenue, which is dotted with strip malls with indicators are in each English and Chinese. The enterprise provided dance classes from tango to rumba to the fox trot, and rented its house for occasions. On Saturday, its web site mentioned, it was internet hosting an occasion known as “Star Night” from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Tony Lai, 35, of Monterey Park was surprised when he got here out for his early morning stroll to be taught that the noises he heard within the evening 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.”
Wynn Liaw, 57, who lives about two blocks from the Monterey Park dance studio, mentioned she was particularly shocked that such against the law would occur throughout New Year’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.
She took an image of the exercise outdoors the studio to ship to family and associates in China “to let them know how crazy the U.S. is becoming with all these mass shootings, even in the New Year.”
President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland have been briefed on the scenario, aides mentioned. Biden mentioned he and first woman Jill Biden have been considering of these killed and wounded, and he directed federal authorities to help the investigation.
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Associated Press author Julie Watson in San Diego contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”