By ANDREW DALTON and JAE C. HONG
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) — The hunt for a gunman who killed 10 individuals at a Los Angeles-area ballroom dance membership ended Sunday when authorities discovered him lifeless of a self-inflicted gunshot wound within the van he used to flee after individuals thwarted his try at a second taking pictures.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna recognized the person as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran and stated no different suspects have been at giant. He added that the motive remained unclear for the assault, which wounded 10 extra.
Luna didn’t have the precise ages of the victims however stated all of them seemed to be over 50. Seven of the wounded individuals remained within the hospital, he stated.
“I nonetheless have questions in my thoughts, which is: What was the motive for this shooter? Did he have a psychological sickness? Was he a home violence abuser? How did he will get these weapons and was it by way of authorized means or not?” Congresswoman Judy Chu stated.
Earlier Sunday, regulation enforcement officers swarmed and entered the van after surrounding it for for hours earlier than getting in. An individual’s physique seemed to be slumped over the wheel and was later faraway from the automobile.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna beforehand launched pictures of an Asian man who was believed to be the suspect.
The manhunt got here after the gunman killed 10 individuals at a ballroom dance studio late Saturday amid Lunar New Years celebrations within the predominantly Asian American neighborhood of Monterey Park. He probably tried and failed to focus on a second dance corridor, authorities stated.
The van was present in Torrance, one other neighborhood residence to many Asian Individuals, about 22 miles (34.5 kilometers) from that second location.
The taking pictures despatched a wave of worry by way of Asian American communities within the Los Angeles space and forged a shadow over Lunar New 12 months festivities across the nation. Different cities despatched additional officers to look at over the celebrations.
“The neighborhood was in worry pondering that they need to not go to any occasions as a result of there was an energetic shooter,” Chu stated. She added that she desires residents to now really feel safe. “Really feel secure,” she stated to residents throughout a press convention late Sunday. “You’re now not in peril.”
Luna stated the taking pictures on the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park left 5 ladies and 5 males lifeless and wounded one other 10 individuals. Then 20 to half-hour later, a person with a gun entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in close by Alhambra.
The suspect entered the Alhambra membership with a gun, and other people wrested the weapon away from him earlier than he fled, Luna stated.
Hours earlier, Luna stated authorities have been searching for a white van after witnesses reported seeing the suspect flee from Alhambra in such a automobile.
Members of a SWAT group entered the van a short while later and seemed by way of its contents earlier than strolling away. It was unclear what they discovered.
The bloodbath was the nation’s fifth mass killing this month. It was additionally the deadliest assault since Could 24, when 21 individuals have been killed in an elementary faculty in Uvalde, Texas.
Monterey Park is a metropolis of about 60,000 individuals on the jap fringe of Los Angeles and consists largely of Asian immigrants from China or first-generation Asian Individuals. The taking pictures occurred within the coronary heart of its downtown the place crimson lanterns embellished the streets for the Lunar New 12 months festivities. A police automotive was parked close to a big banner that proclaimed “Joyful 12 months of the Rabbit!”
The celebration in Monterey Park is one in every of California’s largest. Two days of festivities, which have been attended by as many as 100,000 individuals in previous years, have been deliberate. However officers canceled Sunday’s occasions following the taking pictures.
Tony Lai, 35, of Monterey Park was surprised when he got here out for his early morning stroll to study that the noises he heard within the night time have been gunshots.
“I assumed possibly it was fireworks. I assumed possibly it had one thing to do with Lunar New 12 months,” he stated. “And we don’t even get lots of fireworks right here. It’s bizarre to see this. It’s actually secure right here. We’re proper in the midst of the town, nevertheless it’s actually secure.”
Wynn Liaw, 57, who lives about two blocks from the Monterey Park studio, stated she was shocked that such a criminal offense would occur, particularly throughout New 12 months’s celebrations.
“Chinese language individuals, they think about Chinese language New 12 months very, very particular” — a time when “you don’t do something that may carry unhealthy luck the whole yr,” she stated.
She took an image of the exercise exterior the studio to ship to family and buddies in China “to allow them to understand how loopy the U.S. is changing into with all these mass shootings, even within the New 12 months.”
An Related Press/USA Immediately database on mass killings within the U.S. reveals 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 individuals killed, not together with the perpetrator.
The newest violence comes two months after 5 individuals have been killed at a Colorado Springs nightclub.
President Joe Biden and Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland have been briefed on the scenario, aides stated. Biden stated he and first woman Jill Biden have been pondering of these killed and wounded, and he directed federal authorities to help the investigation.
The taking pictures occurred at Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a couple of blocks from metropolis corridor on Monterey Park’s primary thoroughfare of Garvey Avenue, which is dotted with strip malls of small companies whose indicators are in each English and Chinese language. Cantonese and Mandarin are each extensively spoken, Chinese language holidays are celebrated and Chinese language movies are screened recurrently within the metropolis.
The enterprise provided dance classes from tango to rumba to the fox trot, and rented its house for occasions. On Saturday, its web site stated, it was internet hosting an occasion referred to as “Star Night time” from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
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Related Press author Julie Watson in San Diego contributed to this report.
