Suspect Dead From Self-Inflicted Gunshot After Killing 10 At L.A.-Area Dance Studio, Police Say

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Topline

A 72-year-old man suspected of killing 10 people at a dance studio near Los Angeles late Saturday died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a Sunday police stop, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said, after an hours-long manhunt following the deadliest U.S. shooting so far this year.

Investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide bureau walk away after … [+] briefing the media in Monterey Park, California.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Luna identified the now-deceased suspected shooter as Huu Can Tran, and said police are not looking for any other suspects.

The mass shooting took place around 10:30 p.m. local time Saturday night at the Star Dance Studio in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, and the sheriff’s office says the same suspect later attempted to commit a second shooting at another dance club in neighboring Alhambra, but two members of the community disarmed him.

On Sunday morning, Luna said police in the city of Torrance—located about 20 miles from Monterey Park—spotted a white van associated with the shooting, but heard a single gunshot after they tried to stop the driver, and later determined the suspect had fatally shot himself.

Ten people were killed in the Monterey Park shooting, and at least 10 others were taken to local hospitals for treatment, including some who are in critical condition, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Captain Andrew Meyer told reporters early Sunday morning.

Authorities say they found a handgun inside the van, which had pulled into a parking lot before the suspect shot himself, and a second gun that Luna described as a “magazine-fed semiautomatic assault pistol” was recovered at the scene of the attempted shooting in Alhambra.

What We Don’t Know

Luna said investigators are still trying to determine the suspect’s motives.

Big Number

2,575. That is the total number of people who have been killed by guns across the U.S. so far in 2023, including from homicides, suicides, unintentional deaths and other causes, according to the Gun Violence Archive. These include 36 mass shootings, which the Gun Violence Archive defines as incidents where four or more people were killed or injured, not including the shooter. The Monterey Park shooting is the deadliest incident of 2023 so far, outpacing a shooting in Utah that killed eight.

Tangent

The incident has rocked members of Monterey Park’s large Asian American community, many of whom were planning to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year on Sunday. Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis noted that this was slated to be the city’s first Lunar New Year celebration in three years, after the event had to be postponed in the past two years due to Covid.

Crucial Quote

In a statement issued on Twitter, California Governor Gavin Newsom said: “Monterey Park should have had a night of joyful celebration of the Lunar New Year. Instead, they were the victims of a horrific and heartless act of gun violence. Our hearts mourn as we learn more about the devastating acts of last night. We are monitoring the situation closely.”