On January 21, 2023, a mass shooting occurred in Monterey Park, California, United States. The gunman killed eleven people and injured nine others. The shooting happened at about 10:22 p.m. PST (UTC-8) at Star Ballroom Dance Studio, after an all-day Lunar New Year Festival was held on a nearby street. Shortly afterwards, the gunman drove north to Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra to continue his shooting spree but was confronted by staff and disarmed before fleeing by car. The perpetrator was identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a standoff with police in Torrance the next day. It is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of Los Angeles County.
Monterey Park is in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County and lies about seven miles (11 km) east of downtown Los Angeles. About 65% of the residents are of Asian descent; in the 1990 census, it became the first city in the mainland United States with a majority of residents of Asian descent. Tens of thousands of people had gathered nearby on January 21, Lunar New Year's Eve, for the start of the two-day festival, one of the largest Lunar New Year's celebrations in Southern California. The festival was scheduled to end at 9:00 p.m. that day and continue the next day. The event for Sunday was canceled.
The Star Ballroom Dance Studio is a Chinese-owned dance studio in the 100 block of West Garvey Avenue, near the intersection of Garfield Avenue. It was holding a Lunar New Year countdown dance party from 8:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., which was not part of the festival. The Star Ballroom's dance parties and the studio generally, are popular with older Asian Americans.
Gunfire was reported at the Star Ballroom at 10:22 p.m. on January 21, 2023. The gunman fled the scene. Monterey Park police responded within three minutes of the first 9-1-1 call, finding "individuals pouring out of the location screaming" when they arrived. Ten people were pronounced dead at the scene. Ten others were taken to local hospitals. The gunman used a Cobray M-11/9, a semi-automatic pistol variant of the MAC-11 with an extended high-capacity magazine. The gun and the high-capacity magazine are illegal in California. According to the county sheriff Robert Luna, the weapon was purchased in Monterey Park in 1999 but not registered. He also described the gunman as a male Asian wearing a black leather jacket, a black-and-white beanie, and glasses.
Tran fired 42 rounds in the dance hall. An unnamed witness to the shooting told the media that the gunman began "shooting everybody" in the ballroom and shooting some victims again while walking around. The studio's owner and manager, Ming Wei Ma reportedly was the first to rush the shooter, but was killed. One dancer, Yu Lan Kao, was killed shielding others from gunfire. Others may have done so as well.
The police took about five hours to alert the general public that the shooter was at large, although information was sent to police scanners and other government agencies. Scott Wiese, the city's new police chief (who started work two days before the shooting), said he did not wish to awaken the residents, who are predominantly Asian American, just because the police were "looking for a male Asian in Monterey Park". He also said that the police did not want to risk sharing the wrong information because they had about 40 witnesses, many of whom did not speak English.
A second incident occurred three miles (4.8 km) away in Alhambra, approximately 17 minutes after the Monterey Park shooting. A gunman entered the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio on South Garfield Avenue. Brandon Tsay, a 26-year-old computer programmer whose family owns the Lai Lai ballroom, confronted the gunman in the lobby, wrestled the gun away, and chased him out. His actions were lauded as heroic. Police credited Tsay with preventing more shootings and a larger death toll.
The gunman fled in a white 1999 Chevrolet Express 1500 cargo van. He was later identified as the Monterey Park gunman. The suspect was identified by the weapon seized at the Alhambra scene, which gave authorities his name and description.
Around 10:20 a.m. on January 22, 2023, nearly 22 miles (35 km) away from the second attempted shooting site in Alhambra, police pulled over a van matching the description of the one seen leaving the Alhambra scene at a parking lot in Torrance. The stop was made near the intersections of Sepulveda and Hawthorne boulevards. The van's license plates appeared to be stolen. The plate belonged to the 1999 Chevrolet Express that he stole and Tran was driving a 2007 Chevrolet Express before the shootings. As officers approached the van, they heard a single gunshot coming from inside, retreated, and requested tactical units to respond. During the standoff SWAT officers, both visually from their armored vehicles and via a drone-mounted camera, observed the man in the driver's seat slumped over the steering wheel of the van. He died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head from a Norinco 7.62×25 mm handgun.
He was identified as the gunman responsible for both the Monterey Park shooting and the Alhambra incident.
Ten people, five men and five women, died at the scene – Valentino Marcos Alvero, 68; Hongying Jian , 62; Yu Lun Kao , 72; Lilan Li , 63; Ming Wei Ma , 72; Mymy Nhan , 65; Muoi Dai Ung, 67; Chia Ling Yau , 76; Wen-Tau Yu , 64; and Xiujuan Yu , 57; Ming Wei Ma was Star Ballroom's owner and manager. Three of the victims were citizens of Taiwan, two were Chinese nationals, one a Vietnamese national, while four were American citizens, one with a Chinese-Vietnamese background, one Filipino-American, and two of Chinese descent. An eleventh victim, Diana Man Ling Tom , 70, died at the LAC+USC Medical Center the day after the attack; she was from Hong Kong. Nine more people were injured in the shooting; seven of them remained hospitalized as of January 22, some in critical condition.
Brandon Tsay (born 1996 or 1997) is an American hobbyist computer programmer who disarmed the gunman. He was born in 1996 or 1997 to father Tom Tsay and mother Yvonne Hwei Fung Lin, a first-generation American whose mother is from Taiwan. She died of lung cancer in December 2017.
He attended Pasadena City College and lives in San Marino, California. Tsay was job-seeking while working at his parents' Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra.
The local police department awarded Tsay a medal of courage for his actions. Tsay appeared on CNN, Good Morning America and in the New York Times talking about his intervention. United States Representative Judy Chu honored Tsay at a city of Alhambra Lunar New Year ceremony in February 2023 saying that "The carnage would have been so much worse had it not been for Brandon Tsay." California Governor Gavin Newsom visited Tsay after the event. US President Joe Biden invited Tsay to the 2023 State of the Union Address. Tsay attended as a guest of Jill Biden. President Biden thanked Tsay for his life-saving actions, before Congress gave him a standing ovation.
Tsay collaborated with the Asian Pacific Community Fund to launch the Brandon Tsay Hero Fund, aiming to help local community causes. Monterey Park City Council honored Tsay on February 15, 2023.
The gunman was identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran (August 15, 1950 – January 22, 2023). According to different documents, he was reportedly from China or Vietnam; police stated that Tran was of Vietnamese origin, but had also lived in Hong Kong in the past. According to friends' accounts, Tran stated that he was born in the State of Vietnam to a wealthy family, but was sent to Taiwan in his youth to study electrical engineering after he cut off a person's hand during a physical altercation. He claimed to have begun a life in organized crime there, which would continue after moving to Hong Kong; as a result, he was disowned by his family.
Tran eventually immigrated to the United States, working various jobs, including truck driving and carpet cleaning, residing in Texas for several years before moving to San Gabriel, California in August 1989. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1990 or 1991. In 2013, he sold his San Gabriel home, which was a five-minute drive away from the Star Ballroom. In 2020, Tran bought a double-wide trailer in a senior community at a mobile home park in Hemet, a suburb about 85 miles (137 km) east of Los Angeles. He lived there at the time of the shooting.