Chinese New Year festivities shooter found dead from single self-inflicted gunshot wound in van – Cops had closed in on Huu Can Tran, 72, who visited ‘area hospital seeking medical treatment’ after killing 10, injuring 10 people in LA on Saturday night
Huu Can Tran, 72, the man accused of shooting dead 10 people and injuring another 10 was found dead from single self-inflicted gunshot wound in a van on Sunday
Monterey Park mass shooter, Huu Can Tran, reportedly taught lessons at Star Ballroom Studio where he killed people for 10 years
Sheriffs said the attacker wanted to kill more people in Saturday night’s rampage
Ming Wei Ma, owner of Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park, near Los Angeles, has been identified as the first victim of the mass shooting
Wei Ma, was the first person killed as he rushed toward the gunman when he opened fire
An attempt 20 minutes later by Tran, to launch an attack at another dance studio in Alhambra, was foiled
My Nhan, 65, and Lilan Li, 63, have both been identified as two other victims of the gunman
Three other women, two in their 60s and one in her 50s, along with five men in their 60s and 70s were killed
The Monterey Park mass shooter who slaughtered 10 people and injured several others at a California dance hall may have gone to hospital after the bloody rampage.
Huu Can Tran, 72, was identified as the gunman who shot several people in a ballroom dance studio late Saturday during Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations in the predominantly Asian-American community, before he died in a police standoff.
The massacre at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, where Tran used to give dance lessons, left five women and five men dead and wounded another 10 people. Seven people remained hospitalized Sunday. The first victim of the mass-shooting massacre has been identified as the owner of the ballroom studio – who heroically ran towards the gunman.
Ming Wei Ma is one of ten people who were killed in the horrific massacre at the Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California, on Saturday night.
Friends of the dance enthusiast have revealed that he was the first one to rush towards the gunman, Huu Can Tran, when he opened fire.
Police say they have not yet defined a motive for the deadly shooting, but sources say Tran could have been hunting for his wife.
My Nhan, 65, and Lilan Li, 63, have both been identified as two other victims of the gunman.
Three other women, two in their 60s and one in her 50s, and five men in their 60s and 70s have all been identified as those who were killed.
Among those injured is Jeff Liu, 62, who was hospitalized with gunshot wounds after he and his wife Nancy, 63, went to the Ballroom Dance Studio to celebrate Lunar New Year. Liu saw his wife collapse in the melee, before they were separated and sent to different hospitals.
She is still unaccounted for and her family is seeking closure regarding her fate.
The couple’s adult daughter, Juno Blees said her father Jeff Liu was hospitalized with gunshot wounds after he and his wife Nancy went to the Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park to celebrate Lunar New Year and her mother is still missing.
The family is still hoping she was taken to hospital without her ID card and they will be reunited
Ma’s friend, Eric Chen, told CBS: ‘According to the chat, he was the first to rush the shooter. He was just caring, and other first, people first kind of person.
‘It is heartbreaking and it’s unthinkable that it would happen.’
Instructor Lauren Woods added: ‘He was so adorable to me and I could tell he was the heart of Star Ballroom.
‘So many dancers, teachers and organizers were connected with Ma and I personally will miss him dearly.’
Authorities have yet to release the identities of the 10 victims killed in the attack.
Police were called to shots fired at the dance studio at 10:22pm, arriving on scene just minutes later to find ten dead inside of the building.
Local hospital staff said a man fitting Tran’s description was then spotted inside the emergency room with injuries that appeared to be sustained in a fight, law enforcement sources told CNN.
The man waited for a period of time but then left without treatment, the staff said, who added that they recognized him from photos of the wanted gunman posted by the sheriff department’s Twitter account.
Tran was at large until Sunday afternoon when police pulled him over in the van he used to flee the scene. After an hours-long standoff, Tran died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Shortly after he was spotted at the hospital for treatment, Tran was pulled over by police. A SWAT team swarmed the van after a three-hour long standoff.
Hero Brandon Tsay, 26, wrestled the gun out of Huu Can Tran’s hands after he showed up at the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio in Alhambra on Saturday night looking for more victims. Tran, shown in a hat and wearing all black, had just killed ten people at another studio.
The heroic bystander who took down the Monterey Park gunman after he murdered 10 people at a California dance hall described how he took the 72-year-old down. My ‘primal instinct’ told me to attack, he said.
Brandon Tsay was at the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio in Alhambra at 10.40pm last night when gunman Huu Can Tran burst through the doors armed with an illegal, semi-automatic pistol.
He has since told Good Morning America and The New York Times how he was helping out on Saturday night at his family’s business when dozens had come to the ballroom for a Lunar New Year party.
Tran had already killed 10 people at the Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park. Police sources say he was ‘looking for his wife’. It remains unclear if she is among the victims.
Tran was looking for more victims when Tsay – whose family owns the Lai Lai Ballroom – confronted him, snatching his weapon from him after a struggle and scaring him away.
In an interview with GMA Tsay described the moment he realized the shooter had come looking to kill.
‘It was Chinese New Year’s, we were hosting a social dance party.
‘I was in the lobby and it was late into the evening. Most of our customers already left, I was looking into the dance ballroom.
‘This is when I heard the sound of the front door creaking, instantly followed by the sound of metal objects rubbing together.
‘I turned around and saw there was an Asian man holding a gun. My first thought was, I was going to die here. This is it.’
Tran’s eyes were ‘menacing’.
Tsay said although had never seen Tran before, he said he instantly knew the gun wielding man was there to commit a mass shooting, and was scanning the room for targets. His ‘primal instinct’ prompted him to attack the stranger, Tsay told The New York Times in an interview. After Tsay wrestled the weapon from the would be shooter, the suspect fled.
On Sunday Tran reportedly visited a local hospital with apparent fight injuries, but he left ER before being treated
By 10.20am, police located a white cargo van that was seen earlier seen leaving scene of shooting. Within an hour the van surrounded by police and SWAT in a shopping center parking.
Law enforcement say the suspect has barricaded himself in the van. After a three hour stand off police boarded the van after Tran shot himself dead.
Cops were later seen carting evidence linking him to the shootings is found in the vehicle
Tran was carrying what was described as a semi-automatic pistol with an extended magazine, and a second handgun was discovered in the van where he was found dead, officials said. ‘He intended to kill more people,’ Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a news conference on Sunday night.
‘They saved lives,’ he said of the persons who foiled the shooter
‘This could’ve been much worse.’
‘The weapon that we recovered at that second scene I am describing as a magazine-fed semiautomatic assault pistol. Not an assault rifle, but an assault pistol that had an extended large capacity magazine attached to it.’
Huu Can Tran, 72, taught lessons at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio almost every night in the early 2000s when he lived five minutes away in the San Gabriel Valley.
Tran’s friends, who was close to the gunman from around the early 2010’s, revealed to CNN that he was ‘hostile to a lot of people’ at the studio and believed they said ‘evil things about him.’
His ex-wife also revealed to CNN that the studio is where she met Tran decades during a dance lesson and it wasn’t long until they tied the knot.
But Tran’s appeared to fade quickly as the ex-wife, whose identity wasn’t revealed, claimed he lost interest in her and became easily angered when she messed up on choreography.
Tran, who is an immigrant from China, filed for divorce in 2005.
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