Jan 23, 2023, 07:12 pm
Investigators scrambled on Monday to discover why a 72-year-old gunman opened fire in a California dance hall popular with older patrons and killed 10 people before fatally turning a gun on himself hours later.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the reasons behind the Lunar New Year massacre carried out by Huu Can Tran on Saturday night remained elusive.
Officials worked into Monday trying to identify the 10 people he killed Saturday night at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, about 7 miles (11 km) east of downtown Los Angeles. Another 10 people were wounded and seven remained hospitalized late Sunday.
Tran's rampage could have been far worse. About 20 minutes after the shooting in Monterey Park, he entered another dance club in the neighboring city of Alhambra. There, two patrons wrestled a weapon away from the septuagenarian before he could get a shot off. Tran then fled.
"I can tell you that the suspect walked in there, probably with the intent to kill more people, and two brave community members decided they were going to jump into action and disarm him," Luna told reporters in a Sunday evening briefing.