California authorities have identified the suspect in Saturday's mass shooting, that killed 10 people and injured 10 others, at a ballroom during Lunar New Year celebrations, as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran. He was identified hours after he shot and killed himself, in a white van in Torrance. Reportedly, he was located about 30 minutes from the shooting location in Monterey Park. Authorities confirmed it was the same van the suspect had fled in on Saturday night's shooting.
Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna, stated that Law enforcement officials, before entering the vehicle, surrounded the van with tactical vehicles and bomb squad trucks. Luna confirmed that several pieces of evidence, including a handgun, were found inside the van. This positively linked the suspect to the shooting scene.
No motive has been arrived at by authorities, who have assured the public, that the investigation is ongoing. Luna, in an attempt to reassure the public stated, that there was "no longer a threat" to the community. He also confirmed that seven people remain hospitalized, the ages of whom are mostly over the age of 50 years.
Congresswoman, Judy Chu, who spoke alongside Luna, at Sunday evening's press conference, said-
"I still have questions in my mind, which is: What was the motive for the shooter? Did he have a mental illness? Was he a domestic violence abuser? How did he get these guns and was it through legal means or not?"
-Judy Chu, Congresswoman
According to Luna, the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park left five women and five men dead and wounded another 10 people. Reportedly, 20 to 30 minutes later, a man with a gun entered the Ballroom in nearby Alhambra. Amazingly, people were able to wrestle the weapon away from him before he fled, it was reported.
On the eastern edge of Los Angeles, Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 inhabitants, composed mostly of Asian immigrants from China or first-generation Asian Americans. The shooting happened in the heart of downtown, in a festive environment, where red lanterns decorated the streets, for the Lunar New Year. The scene was topped off with a police car, that was parked near a large banner, that proclaimed "Happy Year of the Rabbit!"
One of California's largest events, the celebration, in Monterey Park, reportedly is two days of festivities, which have been attended by as many as 100,000 people in past years. Following the shooting, officials canceled Sunday's events. Monterey Park's main thoroughfare of Garvey Avenue. A few blocks from city hall, on Monterey Park's main thoroughfare of Garvey Avenue, dotted with strip malls of small businesses, whose signs are in both English and Chinese, reportedly the shooting occurred.
Specifically, the mass shooting occurred at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a few blocks from city hall. Occurring in the heart of the city, where Mandarin and Cantonese are both both widely spoken, it remains to be seen what possible motive Tran may have had for perpetrating this tragic event.
A definite shock in this community, where Chinese holidays are celebrated and Chinese films are screened regularly, this shooting remains a mysterious tragedy. As the story unfolds, stay tuned, to see what drove this man to take such heinous action against those in his community ,and then provoked him to turn his weapon upon himself.
“Only with gun violence do we respond to repeated tragedies by saying that mourning is acceptable but discussing how to prevent more tragedies is not. But that’s unacceptable. As others have observed, talking about how to stop a mass shooting in the aftermath of a string of mass shootings isn’t ‘too soon.’ It’s much too late.”
-Ezra Klein