The sole suspect in the Lunar New Year shooting at a California ballroom that left 11 dead has been named as Huu Can Tran.
Nine others were injured in the crash massacreavoiding more deaths worker heroism As he entered the second L.A. County ballroom, he disarmed Tran, apparently brandishing a gun.
The 72-year-old shot himself dead after fleeing the scene as police shut down his van.
He used to be a dance teacher, and it has come out at the same location where he was accused of starting the fire.
As police pieced together what happened, people who knew him shared other details about the shooter.
Here’s what we know about him so far.
Tran left to go to the dance studio
Tran was reportedly a regular at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, where he reportedly fired 42 rounds on Saturday night (Jan. 21).
An ex-wife of Tran told CNN she met him about 20 years ago at the studio, where he used to take classes.
A long-time Tran acquaintance said that in the late 2000s and early 2010s, he went to the recording studio almost every night.
He was “hostile to a lot of people there,” they told CNN, while Tran claimed the instructors at the time didn’t like him and said “bad things about him.”
It’s unclear whether Tran has been to the dance studio recently, or if he knew anyone in it during filming.
A man lays flowers in the Star Ballroom dance studio
Easily angry but “never violent” before
Tran’s ex-wife told CNN that Tran was never violent, but he was quick to get angry — for example, if she missed a step while dancing.
Tran’s tenant, Adam Hood, told Reuters that Tran was a short-tempered and aggressive man with few friends but enjoyed ballroom dancing, his main social activity.
“He’s a good dancer,” said Mr. Hood, who met Tran in the early 2000s and said they bonded over their shared experience as Chinese immigrants.
“But he doesn’t trust the people in the studio, he’s angry and he doesn’t trust. I think he’s had enough.”
Mr Hood added that Tran complained that people in the studio were talking about him behind his back.
read more:
CCTV shows ‘heroes’ battling gunman as death toll mounts
California gunman found dead in van after killing 10
Brandon Tsay describes moments before he tackles California gunman in Monterey Park shooting
Tran’s personal life
The shooting suspect lives in a 55+ mobile home park in Hemet, Calif., about 65 miles east of where the murders occurred.
He used to live closer to the dance studio. Records show he lived in San Gabriel, near Monterey Park, from the early 1990s until about 2014.
Tran and his ex-wife divorced in 2005. According to Mr Hood, he never remarried and never had a girlfriend.
Tran has a valid trucking license and previously owned a company called Tran’s Trucking, which he started in 2002.
Interaction with Police
Monterey Park Police had no previous interaction with Tran, Police Chief Scott Weiss said at a news conference Monday.
But Hemet police spokesman Alan Reyes told The Associated Press that Tran visited Hemet police twice this month to report that he was the victim of fraud, theft and poisoning by his family in the Los Angeles area a year or two ago. By.
Tran said he would return to the station with the papers, but he never did.
Following the shooting, sheriff’s deputies from Los Angeles County searched Tran’s home and found a .308-caliber rifle, an unknown number of bullets and evidence he was building a homemade gun silencer to silence the weapon.