The man, whom Sheriff Luna identified as Huu Can Tran, showed up at another eatery in the neighboring city of Alhambra about 20 minutes after the fatal shooting in the small town of Monterey Park. Two visitors managed to take his gun from him. “You saved lives. It could have been a lot worse,” Luna said. The man then fled.
The search for the fugitive lasted until Sunday afternoon (local time). With the help of armored vehicles, special forces surrounded the man’s van in a parking lot about 40 kilometers from the scene of the crime, as shown on aerial photos on US television. At first it was not clear whether the man still posed a danger.
At that point, the perpetrator was already dead, as Luna explained at a press conference. He took his own life with a gun when a special police unit surrounded his car.
California shooting kills perpetrator
After the shooting that left ten dead and several injured in a dance hall in the US state of California, the alleged perpetrator was also found dead in a van.
Ten dead, ten injured
The crime happened on Saturday evening during a Chinese New Year celebration in Monterey Park, which has a population of around 60,000 and is an eastern suburb of the Pacific metropolis of Los Angeles, where many people of Asian origin live. The perpetrator opened fire on revelers: at least ten people, five men and five women, died. Ten others were taken to the hospital with injuries, some of them serious.
According to the police, the perpetrator entered the restaurant at around 10:22 p.m. (local time) and fired a gun. “When officers arrived at the scene, they saw numerous people, visitors to the place, erupting screaming from the place,” said Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office. The perpetrator fled. The police cordoned off the area around the club.
The owner of a restaurant near the scene of the crime told the Los Angeles Times that three people ran into his restaurant and asked him to lock the door. They said the shooter was carrying enough ammo that he could keep reloading.
help in the event of a crisis
Reports of (possible) suicides can make things worse for people in crisis. Psychiatric emergency aid offers round-the-clock advice and support on 01/313 30 in the event of a crisis.
The Austria-wide telephone counseling service can also be reached at any time on 142 free of charge. Help for teenagers and young adults is also available on the wire by dialing 147.
No information on motive
A big festival took place in Montery Park over the weekend to mark the Chinese New Year. It was supposed to last until Sunday but was cut short after Saturday’s horrific events. Only a few hours before the crime, people had been celebrating together peacefully on the streets.
“It breaks my heart to hear that we have lost ten lives – shortly after such a beautiful event that many of us here attended yesterday,” said District Manager Hilda Solis. The day has an important meaning for the community. US President Joe Biden ordered a four-day mourning flag display.
The investigators could not provide any information on the motive of the alleged perpetrator, himself of Asian origin. The US broadcaster CNN, citing investigators, reported that the 72-year-old may have tried to get medical help in a hospital shortly before his suicide. However, there was no official confirmation of this.
Over 44,000 deaths from guns
Gun violence is a big problem in the US. The country has more guns than residents: one in three adults owns at least one gun, and nearly one in two adults lives in a household with a gun. According to the website Gun Violence Archive, more than 44,000 people were killed by guns in the United States last year alone.
Gun law is one of the most contentious issues in the United States. While President Biden’s Democrats generally advocate stricter gun laws, opposition Republicans oppose it. They insist on the fundamental right to gun ownership enshrined in the US Constitution.
