California attack suspect taught dance at massacre site

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Huu Can Tran, 72, suspected of shooting 11 people and wounding 10 others in a nightclub in Monterey Park, California, USA, taught almost nightly there in the early 2000s, when he lived a few meters from the crime scene, witnesses said. Police announced this Monday (23) that another victim could not resist the injuries, making it the 11th death.

People who were close to Tran described him as a man of hostile behavior. It is still unknown when the man stopped teaching at the studio, but he moved to the town of Hemet in 2013 after about 20 years in Monterey Park.

Information was collected from testimonies that try to clarify the attack – for now, the motivations remain unknown. The crime took place on Saturday (21, Sunday morning in Brazil), close to a Lunar New Year party. Of the 10 people injured, 7 remained hospitalized this Monday afternoon.

Monterey Park, whose population is made up of 65% Asians, is 11 kilometers from downtown Los Angeles. Authorities said Tran’s old marriage certificate was seized – the document shows he immigrated from China. His ex-wife said they met him decades ago during a class and said the man was easily angered. The couple divorced in 2005.

The gunman opened fire around 10:20 pm on Saturday (3:20 am on Sunday GMT), killing 11 people who were over 50 years old. Then he went to another hall in the nearby city of Alhambra. Authorities say the man was likely intent on carrying out a second massacre, but was stopped by a 26-year-old, who managed to disarm him.

Security camera footage obtained by American network ABC shows the two fighting in the lobby of Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio. “From body language and facial expression, he was looking for other people [para assassinar]”, Brandon Tsay, who took Tran’s gun, told The New York Times. The man then fled and, after being surrounded by police, committed suicide.

In addition to teaching dance nearly five times a week, Tran was also a truck driver and owner of a transportation company from 2002 to 2004, according to documents obtained by the American network CNN.

The shooting sparked a wave of fear among Asian-Americans in the Los Angeles area and put Lunar New Year festivities across the country in check. Events scheduled for Sunday were canceled after the attack. Other cities sent professionals to reinforce security during the celebrations.

The case adds to the history of gun massacres in the US. From 2018 to 2021, the number of sniper attacks in the US has doubled, according to an FBI report released in May. In the first year of the survey, 30 actions caused by one or more individuals with the intention of killing in populated areas were recorded. In 2021, that number rose to 61.

The growth speed of the episodes also went up. In 2019, the figure remained stable compared to the previous year, at 30 cases —in 2017, there were 31—, but rose to 40 in 2020, an increase of 33%. Following that, there was a 52.5% jump in registrations in 2021, according to the FBI report.

There is still no data for 2022. According to the Gun Violence Archive, an NGO that documents cases of armed violence using other criteria, there were 354 fatal shootings last year.

More than 44,000 people died from firearms in the country in 2022, more than half of them from suicide. The United States has more guns than people: one in three adults owns at least one gun, and nearly one in two adults lives in a household with a gun.

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