MONTEREY PARK, Calif. – The man suspected of killing 10 people in a shooting barrage amid Lunar New Year festivities in Southern California shot himself to death in his van as law enforcement agents approached Sunday, authorities said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna identified the man as Huu Can Tran, 72, during a news conference Sunday. Luna said Tran’s white van was spotted in Torrance, California, about 22 miles from the site of Saturday night’s attack at a Monterey Park dance studio.
When the officers got off their patrol car around 10:20 a.m. Sunday, they heard a gunshot from the van and called for help, Luna said.
“At 12:52 p.m., our sheriff’s SWAT team approached and cleared the van and determined the suspect sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene,” Luna said. “Investigators conducted a search of the vehicle and determined the male inside the van was the mass shooting suspect.’’
Luna said the van matched the description of a vehicle seen leaving the scene of a thwarted attack in Alhambra, California, close to where the Monterey Park mass shooting took place. He added there are no other suspects under consideration and the motive for the attack is still unclear.
“The investigation continues. We want to know,” Luna said. “We want to know how something like this, something this awful can happen.’’
Luna said an Asian man with a gun entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra about 20 to 30 minutes after the first shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian American community. Patrons at Lai Lai wrestled a gun from the attacker, Luna said, adding later that the firearm was a “magazine-fed semi-automatic assault pistol.’’ Another handgun was discovered in the van, he said.
The shooting and manhunt sent a wave of fear through Asian American communities in the Los Angeles area and prompted other cities to send extra officers to watch over the celebrations.
“The community was in fear thinking that they should not go to any events because there was an active shooter,” Rep. Judy Chu said at an evening news conference. “You are no longer in danger.”
Ten people were hospitalized as a result of the assault at the Monterey Park venue, some of them in critical condition. Seven were still in the hospital Sunday night, Luna said.
‘WAKING UP TO A NIGHTMARE’:Asian Americans say Monterey Park killings revive fears, trauma of rising anti-Asian hate around US
USA TODAY OPINION:Lunar New Year mass shooting in California traumatizes Asian Americans already on edge
Developments:
►The site of the Alhambra shooting, the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio, was quiet Sunday. A sign said it was closed in observance of the “Star Dance tragedy.”
►A helicopter was sweeping over Monterey Park on Sunday amid tight security – a bicyclist tried to ride through the crime scene but police chased and tackled him.
►GoFundMe said its trust and safety team was monitoring the charitable giving platform for verified fundraisers trying to help the victims and their families.
►California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted that he was monitoring the shooting investigation. “Monterey Park should have had a night of joyful celebration of the Lunar New Year. Instead, they were the victims of a horrific and heartless act of gun violence.”
Was the shooting a hate crime?
Monterey Park is a city of 60,000 people about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The shooting took place shortly after a Lunar New Year celebration brought thousands of people to the city, where many shops feature signs in English and Chinese.
Luna described the case as “one of the county’s most heinous cases.” He was asked whether the case was a hate crime.
“We don’t know if this is specifically a hate crime defined by law, but who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?” Luna said. “The description we have is a male Asian. Does that matter? I don’t know. I can tell you everything is on the table.”
Monterey Park, USC museum cancel fests citing ‘abundance of caution’
Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese said the second day of the two-day Lunar New Year celebration set for Sunday has been canceled “out of an abundance of caution and reverence for the victims.”
The University of Southern California’s Pacific Asia Museum, a few miles from the shooting site, canceled its Lunar New Year Festival scheduled for Sunday “in light of the devastating news of the deadly mass shooting in neighboring Monterey Park.” USC is less than 15 miles west of the shooting site.
The museum, which described itself as a “haven” for the area’s Asian American community, also cited an “abundance of caution.”
“All of us at USC PAM are heartbroken to hear about the horrific violence that happened in our home in the San Gabriel Valley,” said museum director Bethany Montagano in a statement. “Our hearts mourn with the victims’ families and our community members.”
Dance club popular among older residents
Thomas le, a 64-year-old Monterey Park resident, said the studio is popular among older residents in the community who take dance classes there.
Ie wore sweats and a baseball cap as he stretched outside the city’s civic center Sunday, less than a mile from the site of the shooting. He was preparing to teach his weekly Tai Chi class and worried that one of his students might have been at the dance studio Saturday night.
“One of our members loves to dance,” Ie said. “So I’m hoping that last night he didn’t show up.”
Mass exodus of vendors from local hotel
Many vendors and contractors in town for the Lunar New Year festival were staying at the Lincoln Hotel, said Kevin Chu, 52, who worked the front desk at the nearby Lincoln Hotel on Sunday. Monterey Park canceled the weekend festival following the shooting, and empty vendor tents and an array of carnival rides still lined the city’s main thoroughfare, Garvey Avenue, on Sunday.
“They’re all leaving now,” Chu said, adding “I never imagined in this kind of community such things could happen.”
‘People are going to be more cautious’
Ben Wang, a 39-year-old Monterey Park resident who lives near where the shooting took place, said his wife told him what happened Sunday morning and planned to go to the nearby Lunar New Year festival before it was canceled by city officials. He added the area is a quiet, tight-knit community.
“The reason we moved here because it’s so close to authentic Asian food … it’s a very small, little community feel,” Wang told USA TODAY. “It’s one of the Asian cultural epicenters. People travel from all over Southern California to be around here.”
Wang said the shooting is the biggest tragedy to happen in the area since moving here in 2021 and will have ripple effects on the community given that it happened near Lunar New Year celebrations.
“It’s going to contribute to the sense of anti-Asian-like fear. Even if it’s proven not to (be a hate crime), people are just going to become more cautious,” he said. “That’s unfortunate. This is the biggest cultural celebration for a lot of people.”
‘COULD HAVE BEEN MUCH WORSE’:Monterey Park gunman disarmed by ‘heroes’ at second dance studio, sheriff says
City distances rampage from Lunar New Year celebration
Monterey Park city officials issued a statement of condolences for the victims and distanced the tragedy from the festival.
“Even though the incident did not occur at the 2023 Lunar New Year Festival, an active investigation is currently underway and the area near and around the festival is affected,” the statement said. “As a precaution and for the safety of everyone, the City regrets to announce the cancellation of the second day of the festival” scheduled for Sunday.
Monterey Park City Councilman Thomas Wong woke up to his radio alarm clock, typically set to news, discussing the shooting in his hometown. There was very little information beyond the news of the shooting and a shooter at large, and Wong hurried over to city hall while checking in with family and neighbors.
“You never think it’s going to happen in your city, in your own backyard,” said Wong, whose parents live in the city. As a community, “we’re angry, we’re sad and we’re trying to figure this out. I think healing and mourning is going to take a long time.”
Wong said the city has organized a makeshift memorial outside of city hall given that the shooting site is currently taken up by investigators who are still trying to ascertain details like motive.
Biden directs authorities to probe deadly shooting
President Joe Biden expressed his condolences in a statement and said he has directed federal authorities to aid the investigation.
“I want to assure the community of Monterey Park and the broader area that we will support you in every way we can,” Biden said.
Lunar New Year celebration was back after hiatus
Hours before the shooting, Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo posted a brief video clip from the opening ceremonies at the festival, which he said had returned after a three-year absence. The clips show hundreds of people gathered in and under a tent in the sunshine as people dance in brightly colored animal costumes.
“Monterey Park’s Lunar New Year Festival is back!,” Lo wrote. “It was great to see such a large turnout today at the opening ceremony. This is a two-day event that ends tomorrow night in the evening. Come on over … welcome the Year of the Rabbit!”
Dance club owner from China
The website for the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park says the owner, Maria Liang, bought it in 2013 “due to her passion for dancing.”
The website describes the studio as one of the most popular professional ballroom halls in Southern California. Liang graduated from college in China and worked for Nike among other companies.
She came to the U.S. in 1987 to study business at California State University, Los Angeles. Liang’s past professions included working at East West Bank, described as America’s most popular banking institution for the Chinese-American community.
Gun-control advocate Brady United mourns ‘senseless attack’
Kris Brown, president of the gun-control advocacy group Brady United, issued a statement of condolence.
“It is devastating to live in a country where we have to continually wake up to this horrific news. It is even more egregious that it has become normal for people to be gunned down in the middle of a joyous holiday celebration,” the statement said.
It added: “There is no place in our country for hate-filled individuals to target others based on prejudice, bigotry and racism. Our deepest sympathies are with the families and individuals impacted by this senseless attack on the Chinese community.”
Where is Monterey Park?
The site of the shooting in downtown Monterey Park is a few blocks from City Hall on the city’s main thoroughfare. Garvey Avenue is dotted with strip malls full of small businesses with signs in both English and Chinese.
Cantonese and Mandarin are both widely spoken, Chinese holidays are celebrated, and Chinese films are screened in the city.
Shooter appeared to fire indiscriminately, witnesses says
Wong Wei, who lives nearby, told the Los Angeles Times that a friend had gone to the dance club that night as part of a group.
His friend was in the bathroom when the shooting started, Wei said. His friend came out and saw a gunman and the bodies of two women and a club manager, Wei said.
The group of friends fled to Wei’s home, he added.
The shooter appeared to fire indiscriminately, his friends told him. “They don’t know why, so they run,” he told the Times.
Fifth US mass killing this month
The tragedy marked the fifth mass killing in the U.S. since the start of the year. It is also the deadliest since May 24, when 21 people were killed in a school in Uvalde, Texas, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY database on mass killings in the U.S.
The database also shows that 2022 was also one of the worst years ever in terms of mass killings: 42 such attacks — the second-highest number since the creation of the tracker in 2006. The database defines a mass killing as four people killed not including the perpetrator.
The latest violence comes two months after five people were killed at a Colorado Springs nightclub.
MASS KILLING DATABASE:Revealing trends, details and anguish of every US event since 2006
What is Lunar New Year?
Lunar New Year, sometimes called Chinese New Year, is celebrated in several Asian countries, including China, Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia. Some traditions are shared, others are specific to those nations. It marks the beginning of the Lunar calendar year, and months are moon cycles.
This year the lunar year began Sunday, kicking off the Year of the Rabbit (except Vietnam swaps a cat for the rabbit). Twelve animals take turns claiming the year on a rotating basis.
Legend says the animals crossed a dangerous river in the following order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.
LUNAR NEW YEAR 2023:When is the holiday and what does the Year of the Rabbit represent?
Contributing: The Associated Press