A celebration of the Chinese New Year turned tragic last Saturday (21) in Monterey Park, a city in Southern California that is home to one of the largest Chinese communities in the country.
An armed man entered a local dance studio and opened fire, killing 10 people and injuring another 10. The man, identified as Huu Can Tran, 72, was found dead on Sunday afternoon inside a van. Authorities say he shot himself after being cornered by police.
Police are now investigating the details of the attack and the motive of the shooter. They believe he attempted a second attack at another dance studio nearby in Alhambra, but the weapon was wrested from him by local patrons, and he fled.
The shooting was the deadliest in the United States since the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, last May, when 19 children and two teachers were killed. It was also the second mass shooting in less than a week in California, following armed men killing a family of six in Tulare County last Monday, which police say is likely gang-related murder.
Monterey Park, about 11 kilometers east of downtown Los Angeles, has a population of around 60,000, about two-thirds of whom are Asian American. It has long been considered a haven for Chinese immigrants, a place where they can find comfort in the food and language of their homeland.
The Exceptionality of the Case
Among so many shootings that seem to have become routine in the United States, what stands out this time is the age of the shooter. Huu Can Tran, the shooter from Saturday, was 72 years old, a rarity on the extensive list of mass killers in the country, who tend to be much younger.
The average age of mass shooters in the United States over the past six decades is 32 years, according to the Violence Project.
Mass shooters tend to “target locations representative of the grievances they have,” said James Densley, co-founder of the Violence Project and a professor at the School of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice at Metro State University in Minnesota, to The New York Times. He added that mass shooters in school settings are often students themselves. The shootings in Uvalde and Sandy Hook were carried out by former students of their respective schools.
Monterey Park is a predominantly Asian American community. Several of the victims of Saturday’s shooting were between 50 and 60 years old.
The shooter’s age and the exceptionality of the case further pique interest in uncovering what led Huu Can Tran to carry out this shooting.