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Monterey Park Shooter Identified, Motive Still Unclear

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We’ve been covering Saturday’s tragic Monterey Park, California, shooting and its aftermath. As we reported Sunday afternoon, the suspected gunman was barricaded in a white cargo van and involved in a standoff with police in Torrance, California. The standoff concluded with the suspect dead, reportedly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Prior to the standoff, the Sheriff’s Department released photos of the suspect and confirmed an apparent connection between the Monterey Park shooting and the Alhambra incident shortly thereafter.

In that second incident, at the Lai Lai Ballroom, the suspect was disarmed by another patron before anyone was injured:

The shooting at Star Ballroom Dance Studio happened around 10:22 p.m. as the city’s large Asian American community was celebrating Lunar New Year weekend. About 17 to 20 minutes later, an armed man showed up at a second dance studio in nearby Alhambra where authorities say people wrestled a gun away from him – a firearm authorities ultimately used to ID the suspect, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case. The semi-automatic weapon was traced to the suspect, which gave authorities his name and description, the official said.

Officials have now identified the man as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, an immigrant from China, who was once a regular at the dance studio where the shooting occurred.

Per CNN:

Tran had once been a regular patron at Star Ballroom Dance Studio, his ex-wife and a longtime acquaintance both told CNN.

Tran’s former wife, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the case, said she met Tran about two decades ago at Star Ballroom, a popular community gathering place where he gave informal lessons. Tran saw her at a dance, introduced himself and offered her free lessons, she said. The two married soon after, she said.

While Tran was never violent to her, she said he could be quick to anger. For example, she said, if she missed a step dancing, he would become upset because he felt it made him look bad. Tran filed for divorce in late 2005, and a judge approved the divorce the following year, Los Angeles court records show.

Another friend described a troubled relationship between Tran and the studio:

Another longtime acquaintance of Tran’s also remembered him as a frequent presence at the dance studio. The friend, who also asked not to be named, was close to Tran in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when he said Tran would make the roughly five-minute drive from his home in San Gabriel to Star Ballroom Dance Studio “almost every night.”

Tran often complained at the time that the instructors at the dance hall didn’t like him and said “evil things about him,” the friend remembered, adding Tran was “hostile to a lot of people there.”

While Tran’s motive for the shooting remains unclear, investigators have obtained a search warrant for his home in Hemet, California.

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BREAKING: Driver of Van Reportedly Linked to Monterey Park Shooting Dead After Standoff

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Late Sunday morning, officials in Los Angeles County released a photo of the man suspected of murdering 10 people and injuring 10 more in Monterey Park, and Sheriff Robert Luna confirmed in a subsequent press conference that he believes the mass shooting and an incident immediately afterward in Alhambra are connected.

The man is described as between 30 and 50 years old, approximately 5’10” tall and weighing 150 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black leather jacket and a beanie.

In addition, Luna said that a then-ongoing barricade situation nearly 30 miles away in Torrance was believed to be connected. In the earlier press conference, Luna reported that the suspect in the Alhambra attempted shooting fled in a white cargo van and described it as “a van of interest.” Shortly thereafter police in Torrance boxed in a white cargo van found in a parking lot near the Del Amo Fashion Center, and SWAT teams and other tactical units surrounded it for more than an hour before moving in. Just prior to the time of publication, the SWAT team moved in and officials said that activity at the scene was “over.”

Witnesses at the scene say that the driver was dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but the driver’s condition has not been confirmed by officials at this time.

Also, at the time of publication, a second standoff situation was unfolding about five blocks from the original standoff with another white cargo van.

During the press conference, Luna refused to give additional information about the condition or location of the victims wounded in the shootout. He explained that after the first press conference, in which the names of hospitals victims were taken to was given, one hospital received a phone call from a person naming one of the victims and saying that they were going to “finish the job.”

Luna also said that officials have not determined how many perpetrators might be involved in the incidents.

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LA County Sheriff: Suspect in Monterey Park Shooting is an Asian Male; Officials Don’t Believe ‘Assault Rifle’ Was Used

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Officials in Los Angeles County held a press conference at 8:30 AM local time to provide updates on the investigation into a mass shooting in Monterey Park that left 10 dead and 10 wounded. As we reported, the shooting took place at a dance hall shortly after the first day of the community’s Lunar New Year festival ended.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna stated that investigators have received different descriptions of the perpetrator, preventing them from providing a specific description, but that the suspect is a “male Asian” with a probable age range of 30 to 50.

Luna said that they have not been able to identify the deceased victims, but that five men and five women were killed and they will be working with the coroner’s office to identify those victims and notify their families.

When asked about motive and whether it was a “hate crime,” Luna said:

Everything is on the table. We don’t know if this is specifically a hate crime as defined by law, but who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?

Witnesses have given differing descriptions of the type of gun used, Luna said, but investigators “don’t believe it was an assault rifle at this time.” Luna would not disclose the caliber of the murder weapon due to the ongoing investigation.

About 20 minutes after the shooting in Monterey Park, an armed man entered a dance hall just a few miles away in Alhambra, but individuals there were able to wrestle the gun away from him before he fled. Investigators haven’t officially linked the two incidents at this time, but, as Sheriff Luna stated, “it’s definitely on our radar screen.” The weapon seized in Alhambra is not an “assault rifle,” according to Luna, and undoubtedly ballistics tests are being performed at this time to determine if that weapon is in fact the murder weapon.

The fact that the shooting took place so soon after the Lunar New Year festival had wrapped up for the day was beneficial, since the police department had dozens of officers on duty already for that event. Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese described the initial response:

The incident, as you all know, is very close to the police station. We were just wrapping up the final shut-down of the Lunar New Year event. I had dozens of officers here throughout the day and the evening at the…event, so our response to the scene was within minutes. The initial officers that responded saw dozens of people exiting. Some were injured, some weren’t, and we handled them as they came out, began to triage that.

And my officers put together a REACT team and went inside to see if the suspect was still inside. They were probably entering that business within a minute or two of responding, and — that’s how we’ve been trained, and that’s how we respond to situations like this.

Wiese said that approximately 100,000 people attended the festival on Saturday, and that it was logistically impossible for them to screen all of the attendees for weapons.

President Biden released a statement on Twitter.

Officials said they hoped to have another press conference with more information “in a few hours.”

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Update: At Least 10 Dead, 10 Hospitalized Following Monterey Park Shooting

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As we reported early Sunday morning, a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, during the Lunar New Year festivities has claimed multiple victims.

Per the latest update from Fox News, authorities have confirmed at least 10 of the victims have died and 10 have been transported to area hospitals, while the shooter remains at large.

The shooting occurred late Saturday evening at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio. Police gave an update shortly after 6:30 am Eastern.

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Per that update, they do not yet know the type of firearm that was used, nor do they know the motive for the shooting. The suspect is described as male, but police do not yet know whether he knew any of the victims or if this was some sort of hate crime.

Officials were asked about an incident in Alhambra and indicated they were aware of and investigating that incident but not certain at this point whether the incidents are related.

The second possible scene was located at the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio on 120 block of South Garfield Avenue though it remains unclear whether the two scenes were connected.

According to early reports, officials were searching to see whether the suspect had gone to that ballroom, which was approximately two miles away from the mass shooting in Monterey Park.

Per the Fox report:

Captain Drew Meyer from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau confirmed early Sunday that 10 victims were pronounced dead at the scene, with 10 additional victims taken to local hospitals in various conditions ranging from stable to critical.

Meyer said the suspect, whom authorities earlier identified as a male, fled the scene after the shooting and remains on the loose. No description of the suspect was immediately available.

….

Meyer said no further information on the firearm used was available at this time. He said it’s too early in the investigation to know whether the gunman knew any of the victims or whether it was a hate crime.

He also said police were investigating another incident in the nearby city of Alhambra to see whether it was connected. No injuries were immediately reported in that incident.

The remainder of the Lunar New Year festivities have been canceled.

We’ll continue to provide updates as they become available.

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BREAKING: Mass Shooting at Lunar New Festival in Monterey Park, CA

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According to multiple news reports, more than a dozen people were shot, many fatally, at the conclusion of the first day of the Lunar New Year festival in Monterey Park, California, about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

Pete Demetriou from KNX News reported that preliminary indications are that 16 people were shot with as many as 10 dead.

KNX notes that numbers of dead and injured are not confirmed by officials at this time, and are based on police scanner traffic.

According to census statistics, about 65 percent of Monterey Park’s 60,000 residents are of Asian descent. The small city has reportedly requested assistance from neighboring cities in responding to the crisis.

Nearby agencies were assisting the Monterey Park police and fire departments. According to video from the scene and broadcast reports, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators, El Monte and Alhambra police and South Pasadena fire personnel were on scene.

According to the Los Angeles Times, one law enforcement source said “the casualty count totaled more than a dozen people.” A restaurant proprietor shared a harrowing story:

Seung Won Choi, who owns the Clam House seafood barbecue restaurant across the street from where the shooting happened, said three people rushed into his restaurant and told him to lock the door. They told him that there was a man with a machine gun in the area.

The people also told Choi that the shooter had multiple rounds of ammunition on him, so that once his ammunition ran out, the shooter reloaded.

Choi said he believes the shooting took place at a dance club in the area.

The shooting took place sometime after 10 p.m. near the site of a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration. Tens of thousands had gathered Saturday for the start of a two-day festival, one of the largest Lunar New Year events in the region.

John, 27, who declined to give his last name, lives near the shooting site. He got home around 10 p.m. and heard about 4 or 5 gunshots, he said. Then he heard police cruisers “smashing” down the street. He went downstairs at around 11:20 p.m. to see if the shooting occurred at the New Year festival.

As of the time of publication, there is no information available about the assailant.

This is breaking news story. We will post updates as more information becomes available.

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