Gunman is dead after 10 killed in Monterey Park, Calif., shooting

Politicians, activists and law enforcement officials are calling for changes to gun-control laws after the shooting in Monterey Park, in what has become an emblematic response to an ongoing spate of mass shootings in the United States.

“California has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but yet, look at what we just had today,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a news conference Sunday evening. “Let’s look across our nation, see what works and what doesn’t. I can tell you this: The status quo is not working.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) visited Monterey Park to meet with the community on Sunday, he said. “The strength of this community is incredible,” he said on Twitter, calling the shooting a “terrible tragedy.”

Alex Satrain, a Filipino ballroom dance instructor who has taught at both targeted studios, said they attracted an international community of dancers.

Many of the teachers and students were Chinese and Russian. Some of his students were out celebrating the Lunar New Year the night of the shooting.

Satrain said he would have been at Star Ballroom Dance Studio when the shooting occurred because he had considered attending the Lunar New Year celebration there. He wanted to support his former co-workers and the owner. But he didn’t feel up to going. He finished teaching private lessons at Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio at 4 p.m., went home and fell asleep. When he woke up at 8 p.m., he realized he would be late to the party and decided to skip it.

In the wake of the Monterey Park shooting, several Asian American public figures took to social media to speak out on a tragedy that has rattled spirits amid Lunar New Year celebrations.

“We begin the New Year with great sadness,” Min Jin Lee, a Korean American author best known for her novel “Pachinko,” tweeted on Sunday night. She addressed revelations that the shooting suspect — who died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds — was an Asian male, stating that intra-racial violence “is still violence.”

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna described during a news conference on Sunday evening how officers first made contact with the mass killing suspect, whom police identified as Huu Can Tran.

At 10:20 a.m. local time, Torrance Police Department officers spotted the white van matching the description put out by police as belonging to the shooter, Luna said.

As officers pulled behind the vehicle, he added, the white van entered the parking lot of a shopping plaza at Hawthorne and Sepulveda boulevards.

Police believe the shooter who killed 10 people at a dance studio Saturday is dead, but they are still working to learn more about the alleged gunman and a possible motive.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said investigators were looking into the criminal history and background of Huu Can Tran after police found “several pieces of evidence” inside the van where Tran was found that linked him to the mass killing. He said investigators were serving search warrants Sunday night, and authorities were interviewing witnesses at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park and Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra.

Two bystanders who disarmed Huu Can Tran at the Lai Lai Ballroom in Alhambra were hailed as heroes by Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.

“They saved lives,” Luna said. “This could have been much worse.”

Tran went to the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio after killing 10 people at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park. Earlier on Sunday, officials said a suspect walked into the dance studio and had his weapon wrestled away from him.

Luna identified the suspect as Tran on Sunday afternoon.

Police recovered a magazine-fed, semiautomatic “assault pistol” from the Alhambra ballroom, Luna said, separate from the handgun that was recovered from the van where Tran killed himself Sunday morning. Luna said he believed the weapon recovered in Alhambra was not legal to possess in California.

Officials have recovered two weapons throughout their investigation into the shooting, including a handgun and an assault pistol with an “extended large capacity magazine attached to it,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a news conference Sunday.

Luna said the handgun was found inside the white van that officials breached in Torrance, Calif. — where the shooting suspect, identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, was found slumped over the driving wheel after “sustain[ing] a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Luna said. Tran was pronounced dead at the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a news conference Sunday evening that victims were people in their 50s, 60s, 70s and possibly older. He said they are still identifying the victims.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said late Sunday that investigators were still unsure of the motive behind a shooting in which 10 people were killed in Monterey Park the previous night. Luna said the investigation would continue after police discovered the body of the man suspected of the shooting, whom he identified as Huu Can Tran, 72.

“Although that closes a portion of a very long day for all of us, the investigation is still ongoing,” he said.

About 12 hours after a gunman unleashed a barrage of bullets that killed at least 10 people inside a dance studio in Monterey Park, a law enforcement operation was being assembled some 29 miles away in Torrance, Calif., audio from the Los Angeles County Sheriff Dispatch radio shows.

Over the radio, units were called to stop traffic flowing into a commercial center where Walmart, PetSmart and Hobby Lobby shops are found. In the parking lot, the gunman was possibly inside a white van and a large police presence was building up to barricade the vehicle and surround the area with police tape, according to the audio obtained from Broadcastify.