Hu Can Tran was once a regular at the California dance club where America’s latest gun massacre unfolded.
Monterey Park, United States:
The 72-year-old Asian immigrant who shot himself before killing 11 people as police attacked him was a one-time regular at the California dance club where America’s latest gun massacre unfolded.
Hu Can Tran used a semi-automatic pistol to open fire around the Star Ballroom dance studio in Monterey Park, an Asian-majority city near Los Angeles.
Twenty minutes later, he was confronted and disarmed by a youth worker at another dance club, before being driven away.
As the small town tries to come to terms with the tragedy, which was celebrating the Lunar New Year in the Asian community, a picture of the suspect began to emerge.
Tran, whose name is typically Vietnamese, immigrated to the United States from China, according to a marriage certificate his ex-wife showed to CNN.
The woman, who did not want to be named, told the network she met Tran two decades ago at Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where he regularly attended.
The studio, whose website says it was founded in 1990, offers classes in all types of dance, from children’s ballet to Latin steps to belly dancing.
Tran’s ex-wife says he introduced her to the club, offering her free, informal lessons.
After some time both of them got married, but this marriage could not last.
She said that Tran, who worked occasionally as a truck driver, was not violent but could be impatient, especially if he felt he was being shown up, for example by messing up his dance steps. .
Court records cited by CNN show that the couple was divorced in 2006.
A person who said he knew Tran well in the late 2000s and early 2010s told the broadcaster that he was a regular at the dance studio during that time.
The friend described how Tran used to drive three miles (five kilometers) from his home in San Gabriel, downtown, to Monterey Park almost every night.
But Tran would complain about dance teachers, who he claimed would say “bad things about him,” the man told CNN, describing Tran as “hostile to a lot of people out there.”
– ‘Something this terrible’-
He sold his house in San Gabriel in 2013.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Tran was living in a mobile home in Hemet, a city of 90,000 people about 85 miles east of Los Angeles.
Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department searched his residence at the Lakes in Hemet West mobile home park, which bills itself as a “55+ active living community.”
A neighbor there said the community was shocked.
“He would stop petting your dog, and everyone around here thought he was just a quiet little guy,” Pat Roth told broadcaster KTLA.
“People I’ve talked to are stunned that he was involved.”
Police in Hemet said they had contact with Tran this month.
Hemet PD said, “Tran visited the lobby of the Hemet Police Department on January 7 and 9, 2023, facing charges of fraud, theft and poisoning his family in the Los Angeles area 10 to 20 years ago.”
“Tran said he would return to the station with documentation regarding his allegations but never did.”
The Los Angeles Times stated that investigators were focusing on Tran’s past interactions at the two dance studios, and were looking into whether jealousy was a motive for the relationship.
On Sunday, as police officers approached the white van, Tran shot himself.
LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said investigators are looking into Tran’s mental health and criminal history.
“The investigation is on,” he told reporters. “We want to know how this can be terrible.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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