(Monterey Park) Authorities say the suspect in the California dance club shooting that left 10 dead and 10 injured committed suicide with a gun.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said on Sunday the man killed himself as officers approached the van he used to flee the scene of a second shooting attempt.
Mr. Luna identified the suspect as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran. He added that no other suspects were at large.
A man opened fire in a ballroom in Monterey Park, near Los Angeles, California, in a place where people were celebrating the Lunar New Year, killing 10 people and injuring 10 others.
A manhunt has taken place to capture the suspect in the latest mass shooting to occur in an American community.
Law enforcement officials entered a van on Sunday afternoon, which officials suspected was driven by a gunman who opened fire on a Southern California ballroom dance studio.
In the middle of the afternoon, the police surrounded a white van in a parking lot. Hours earlier, Sheriff Luna said authorities were looking for a van in that color that was reportedly observed by witnesses.
“We believe there is a person inside this vehicle. We do not know his state of health, but we will maneuver as safely as possible to try to identify him. Is this our suspect? It’s possible,” Luna said earlier.
Police surrounded the van with tactical vehicles and bomb trucks for hours before entering. One person’s body appeared slumped over the steering wheel and was later removed from the vehicle, but authorities did not immediately identify the person.
PHOTO FREDERIC J. BROWN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The shooting occurred near a place where the Lunar New Year had just been celebrated in Monterey Park, a city of some 60,000 inhabitants, mostly of Asian origin.
Authorities said earlier they knew the suspect’s name, but declined to release it so as not to jeopardize a possible arrest. They did, however, post a photograph of an Asian man wearing glasses and a winter cap. The image was taken in Alhambra.
The individual would have tried to continue his carnage after the first killing. Authorities say he likely tried and failed to target a second dance hall.
The van was found in Torrance, another community home to many Asian Americans, about 34.5 kilometers from that second location.
A gunman entered a dance hall in the Alhambra 20 to 30 minutes later. Customers fought with him to get his gun out of his hands. The man then fled in a vehicle, the sheriff said.
Authorities believe the two events may be connected.
Sheriff Luna declined to specify the type of firearm that was found at the Alhambra. He added that investigators do not believe the weapon used by the shooter in Monterey Park was an assault rifle.
Capt. Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said Sunday the injured were taken to hospital and their conditions range from stable to critical. He said ten of the victims died at the scene.
Meyer said people were “running out of the venue screaming” when officers arrived at the scene around 10:30 p.m. Saturday. He said officers entered the ballroom while firefighters treated the injured.
Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people, with a large Asian population. It is located about ten miles from downtown Los Angeles.
Mass shooting: 2022 the worst year
It is the fifth mass shooting in the United States alone this month, and the deadliest since 21 people were killed at a school in Uvalde, Texas, according to a database from The Associated Press/ USA Today, on the massacres in the United States.
According to this data, 2022 was one of the country’s worst years with 42 such attacks – the second highest number since the tracking system was established in 2006. The database defines a massacre as four people killed, without count the culprit.
Sunday’s violence came two months after five people were killed at a Colorado Springs nightclub.
President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland have been briefed on the situation. Mr Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were thinking of those killed and injured, and he ordered federal authorities to support the investigation.
The shooting took place at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a few blocks from City Hall on Monterey Park’s main thoroughfare, Garvey Avenue, which is dotted with strip malls and small businesses whose signs are in English. and in Chinese. Both Cantonese and Mandarin are widely spoken, Chinese holidays are celebrated, and Chinese films are regularly screened in the city.
Seung Won Choi, owner of the Clam House seafood restaurant across from where the shooting took place, told the Los Angeles Times that three people rushed into his business and told him to shut the door. They told him that there was a shooter, with several bullets on him.
Wong Wei, who lives nearby, told the Los Angeles Times that his friend was in a bathroom at a dance club that night when the shooting broke out. When she came out, she saw the gunman and three bodies. She then fled to his home around 11 p.m., Wei said, adding that her friends told her the shooter appeared to be firing indiscriminately from a long gun.
“They don’t know why, so they run,” he told the newspaper.
The shooting took place near where thousands of people had attended a Lunar New Year celebration. Saturday was the start of the two-day festival, which is one of the biggest Lunar New Year events in Southern California.
Videos posted on social media showed people on stretchers and being placed in ambulances. Other photos showed victims bloodied and treated by Monterey Park firefighters in a parking lot.
Justin Trudeau is ‘heartbroken’
PHOTO DARRYL DYCK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of one of Canada’s largest Lunar New Year parades in Vancouver’s Chinatown on Sunday
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “heartbroken” thinking of the victims of the shootings in California on Saturday.
Trudeau, who attends one of Canada’s largest Lunar New Year parades in Vancouver’s Chinatown, said it’s the first time since the start of the pandemic that celebrations can take place in face-to-face.
But the news of the killings, he said, brought sadness to the heart of an event that was to be filled with joy.
“We will be there to offer all the support that Canada can give,” he told reporters on Saturday, before the parade began.
He sent his condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives.
This year, thousands of Canadians are gathering across the country to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit.
The Canadian Press
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