MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) — Authorities searched for a motive for the gunman who killed 10 people at a Los Angeles-area ballroom dance club during Lunar New Year celebrations, slayings that sent a wave of fear through Asian American communities and cast a shadow over festivities nationwide.
The suspect, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday in the van that authorities say he used to flee after being prevented from attacking another dance hall. A man whose family runs the venue confronted the assailant in the lobby and wrested the gun from him, The New York Times reported.
The massacre in Monterey Park was the nation’s fifth mass killing this month — and it struck one of California’s largest celebrations of a holiday observed in many Asian cultures, dealing another blow to a community that has been the target of high-profile violence in recent years.
Monterey gunman thought dance instructors said ‘evil things about him’
The gunman who slaughtered 10 people at a California dance club before killing himself had been a regular patron at the venue — and believed that the instructors said “evil things about him.”
Huu Can Tran, 72, opened fire at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park late Saturday with a semi-automatic pistol, killing 10 people and wounding at least 10 others before storming the rival Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, where a bystander disarmed him.
