The gunman who killed 11 people and wounded nine others at a Monterey Park ballroom Saturday night was later stopped in his tracks at a second dance hall in Alhambra thanks to two bystanders who are now being called heroes.
Investigators believe that 20 minutes after 72-year-old Huu Can Tran opened fire at the Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park, he headed to Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio just over 2 miles away armed with a semi-automatic pistol.
Two men were able to disarm the gunman before he could fire a shot.
One of the them was a 26-year-old coder and third-generation operator of the family-run dance hall who helped wrestle the gun away, The New York Times reported.
Brandon Tsay told the newspaper he was in the office when he heard the front doors swing open and what sounded like metallic objects hitting one another.
He turned and saw a gun pointed at him. Tsay fought the suspect for the gun for about a minute-and-a-half before Tsay was able to get the gun away and yelled for the man to leave, the Times reported.
Tsay told Good Morning America that he thought he was going to die.
“Something came over me. I realized I needed to get the weapon away from him. I needed to take this weapon, disarm him, or else everybody would have died. When I got the courage, I lunged at him with both my hands, grabbed the weapon and we had a struggle,” Tsay told GMA.
He said the gunman hit him across the face and on the back of his head. Afterward, he said he was shaking and couldn’t believe what had happened.
Investigators say the weapon, described as a “magazine-fed semi-automatic assault pistol,” is illegal in California.
No further details have been released about the second man who helped, but Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the men’s quick actions most likely saved many lives at the Alhambra scene.
“He was disarmed by two community members who I consider to be heroes because they saved lives,” the sheriff said. “This could have been much worse.”
State Sen. Susan Rubio of Baldwin Park also commended the community members who thwarted a second possible attack.
“We would be standing here with a lot more tragedy, so I want to thank those two individuals and we hope to honor them some point in the near future,” she said.
Tran was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a cargo van that police had surrounded in a Torrance parking lot. Another gun and other evidence tying him to the crimes were found inside, authorities said.
The motive behind the shooting remains unknown.
A candlelight vigil honoring the victims of the shooting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at Monterey Park City Hall, 320 W. Newmark Ave.
