California authorities see no hyperlink between dance corridor shooter and victims
By Brendan O’Brien
(Reuters) – Los Angeles-area investigators have discovered no connection between the victims of a mass taking pictures at a Monterey Park, California, dance corridor and the aged man who carried out the bloodbath final weekend, authorities mentioned.
The 72-year-old assailant, Huu Can Tran, on Saturday killed 11 individuals and wounded 9 others on the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a venue simply east of Los Angeles that’s standard with older patrons of Asian descent. The assault happened in the course of the two-day Lunar New 12 months celebration, some of the festive occasions on the calendar for a lot of Asians.
“Primarily based on interviews the investigators are nonetheless conducting, they haven’t been capable of set up a connection between the suspect and any of the victims,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna mentioned throughout a information convention late on Wednesday.
The Monterey Park rampage was the primary in back-to-back mass shootings in California up to now few days. On Monday, a gunman killed seven individuals at two mushroom farms within the coastal Northern California metropolis of Half Moon Bay.
Investigators have been unable to tie Tran romantically to any of the victims and have decided that he had not frequented the dance studio within the final 5 years, regardless of earlier stories that he was an everyday on the institution, Luna mentioned.
Along with conducting quite a few interviews, investigators have searched Tran’s residence in Hemet, about 80 miles (130 km) east of Los Angeles. They’ve but to determine a motive, he added.
“It is irritating when one thing like this occurs that’s so tragic. We try to know it, and it does not make sense,” Luna mentioned.
Investigators did discover a bike registered to the suspect parked one block from the dance corridor. It was parked there simply earlier than the taking pictures in its place getaway car, Luna mentioned.
After finishing up the taking pictures on the dance corridor, Tran drove a short while later to a second dance corridor in Alhambra, the place that membership’s operator disarmed him earlier than he may open fireplace.
The following day, Tran shot himself to dying behind the wheel of his car as police closed in on him south of Los Angeles.
Tran used a MAC-10, a semi-automatic gun, within the taking pictures. He bought that gun in 1999 however it was not registered with the state of California, Luna mentioned. Police recovered two different weapons, the pistol Tran used to take his personal life and a rifle at his residence.
Close to San Francisco, Chunli Zhao, a 66-year-old immigrant farm employee, was formally charged with premeditated homicide on Wednesday within the taking pictures at Half Moon Bay. The Chinese language citizen faces seven counts of homicide and a single depend of tried homicide, and may very well be sentenced to dying if convicted.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; enhancing by Jonathan Oatis)