The incident took place at 10:22 p.m. a day before Lunar New Year, at a dance club called “Star Dance Studio” on the line of Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park.
According to the LA County Sheriff Bureau, an Asian man identified as Huu Can Tran (72) entered the dance club where the party was in full swing and fired his gun.
Five men and five women were killed in the incident, said Captain Andrew Meyer of the Sheriff Bureau. “In addition to the deaths, at least 10 people were taken to hospitals, ranging from mild to severe injures.” “When the police arrived at the scene, countless people screamed and poured out of the scene,” he said in a press conference. “When I entered the site, I found the victims.”
The day of the incident was a day before Lunar New Year’s Day, and thousands of people participated in the Lunar New Year festival event that began in the morning on Gabi Avenue until 9 p.m., an hour and a half ago.
Twenty minutes after the shooting, the suspect also headed to the dance hall “Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio” in Alhambra, about two miles north of the scene.
Authorities said they received a report that an “Asian male suspect” walked in armed. “At that time, two citizens took semi-automatic firearms from the suspect and the suspect fled.”
Guns recovered from suspects are illegal in Cage.
Sheriff later found a white van believed to have been used to flee in the Tokyo Central parking lot near the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, 30 miles from the scene of the shooting.
Police found a suspect who collapsed on the steering wheel with at least two bullet holes in the window while attempting to enter the suspect’s vehicle, and confirmed that the suspect took his own life.
In a related development, CNN reported, “When the police ordered the suspect to get out of the car, I heard the suspect shooting himself in the car.”
The latest incident is the largest number of victims since May last year when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos killed 19 students and two bottles of teachers at Rob Elementary School in Uvaldi, Texas, and injured 17 others.
By Jang Su-ah.
