A 72-year-old man who opened fire at a California Lunar New Year celebration Saturday night — killing 10 and wounding 10 more — was found dead Sunday afternoon from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a Sunday night press conference that the suspect, identified as Huu Can Tran, went to a second New Year celebration a few miles away in Alhambra after the deadly shooting in Monterey Park.
“Two community members I consider to be heroes” disarmed the suspect at the second location, Luna said, and he fled the scene in a white cargo van.
That van was later located by Torrence Police officers about 12 hours after the initial shooting. They pulled behind the van, Luna said, which then pulled into a shopping center parking lot. Officers heard a single gunshot as they approached the van, prompting them to retreat and call in tactical back up.
Just before 1 p.m., a SWAT team breached the van and found the suspect dead inside, Luna said.
The sheriff said investigators found several pieces of evidence from both scenes inside the van, as well as a handgun. The gun recovered from the Alhambra scene was a “magazine-fed, semi-automatic assault pistol,” he said.
“Although that closes a portion of a very long day for all of us, the investigation is still ongoing,” Luna said, including “working on determining the motive behind this extremely tragic event.”
The shooting began at about 10 p.m. at the Star Dance Studion in Monterey Park. Five men and five women were killed, as CrimeOnline previously reported, and 10 more people were wounded. Luna said Sunday night that seven people remained hospitalized.
After the shooting, the gunman then traveled about three miles to the Lai Lai Ballroom in Alhambra, but patrons there wrestled the gun away from him, and he fled. Witnesses saw him leave the scene in the white van, and security cameras inside the ballroom captured images of him. Police by then knew the suspect’s name but declined to release it. He was identified at the time as an Asian man.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Police officers stand outside a ballroom dance club in Monterey Park, California, on January 22, 2023. . (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)]
