AT LEAST 10 people were killed and a dozen more injured in a mass shooting Saturday night at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California, a predominantly Asian community that was celebrating the Lunar New Year.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna confirmed on Sunday night that the man they found dead in a white cargo van after an hours-long standoff was the person they suspected of carrying out the mass shooting the night before, as CNN reports. Luna said the alleged suspect was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The alleged suspect was identified by authorities as Huu Can Tran, 72.
Earlier in the day, law enforcement said they were searching for an Asian man, between 30 and 50 years old. “We need to get his person off the street as soon as possible,” Luna said.
“Officers from the Monterey Park Police Department responded to a local business in the 100 block of West Garvey Avenue in the city of Monterey Park regarding a shots fired call,” Capt. Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said at a press conference early Sunday morning.
“When officers arrived on scene, they observed numerous individuals, patrons of the location pouring out of the location, screaming. The officers made entry to the location and located additional victims.”
The shooting occurred at approximately 10:22 p.m. local time, roughly 80 minutes after the city’s annual Lunar New Year celebration — which draws about 100,000 people to the city of 60,000, 65-percent of whom are Asian — had concluded at 9 p.m.
“We will look at every angle as far as whether it was a hate crime or not. It’s just too early in the investigation to know,” Meyer added. Police have not yet released the names of the victims (five men and five women, law enforcement later revealed) because they have not been able to identify them. A witness told the Los Angeles Times that the suspect was firing indiscriminately with a long gun.
Comments