Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
A Dramatic new surveillance video shows man who disarmed Monterey Park mass shooting suspect confronting him moments after he entered a dance hall in Alhambra.
The IFThese images were taken just after 72-year-old Huu Can Tran entered the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio on Saturday.
In the video is seen as Tran enters a small room near the ballroom foyer with an assault pistol with an extended magazine. The gun also appears to have a large silencer.
Moments later, Tran takes on 26-year-old Brandon Tsay. The two then exchange a few words before Tsay attacks Tran.
The two men are seen fighting violently in the lobby until Tsay eventually gains control of the assault weapon, forcing Tran to run out the door.
Tsay told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she thought she was going to die.
“Something got a hold of me. I realized that he needed to take the gun from him, he needed to take this gun, disarm him or else they would all have died,” Tsay said.
“When I got up the nerve, I lunged at him with both hands, grabbed the gun, and we had a fight.”
Once Tsay grabbed the gun, she pointed it at the man and yelled, “Get the hell out of here, I’ll shoot, get away, get out!”
The man who disarmed the Monterey Park shooter said: ‘I couldn’t believe what happened’
Tsay stripped the suspected shooter of the gun at an Alhambra dance studio 17 minutes after the Monterey Park shooting, police said.
The shooter paused, but then returned to his truck, and Tsay called police, gun still drawn.
Tsay didn’t know it at the time, but later learned that this same man had allegedly opened fire at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in nearby Monterey Park 17 minutes earlier, killing at least 11 people and wounding 9 others.
Records indicate that Tran worked as a professional trucker for at least 20 years, briefly running his own trucking company. He served as CEO of a San Gabriel-based company called Tran’s Trucking, Inc., but did not stay in business for long. Records indicate that the company was formed in 2002 but dissolved in 2004.
“The strength of this community is incredible,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “No other country in the world is terrified by this constant stream of armed violence. We need real gun reform at the national level.”
Tran’s ex-wife, who asked not to be named, told CNN she met him about 20 years ago at the Star Ballroom. Tran showed up at a dance and offered her free lessons. They got married shortly after that.
She said that Tran had a short temper, although he was not violent. If she made a mistake while dancing, he would get mad because she thought she was making him look bad, she reminded herself. Court records indicate that Tran filed for divorce in 2005.
Tran was an immigrant from China, according to documentation on his marriage license shown to CNN.
A former tenant and longtime acquaintance of Tran’s told ABC News that he regularly attended dance studios in Monterey Park and Alhambra.
Hemet police say Tran visited the apartment’s lobby on January 7 and 9 of this year. She made allegations of fraud, theft and poisoning involving her family in the Los Angeles area 10 to 20 years ago, the department said. He said that he would return with the documentation that proves his accusations, but he never showed up again.
The Monterey Park massacre was the nation’s fifth mass murder this month. It was also the deadliest attack since May 24, when 21 people were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park is one of the largest in California. Two days of festivities were planned, which have been attended by up to 100,000 people in recent years. But officials canceled Sunday’s events after the shooting.
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