Former friends say Monterey Park shooter was mad at the world, not just his ex

SAN GABRIEL, California. The elderly shooter responsible for the Monterey Park dance hall massacre was out of step with other Asian immigrants who found joy and fellowship in places like the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, according to former friends.

Huu Kang Tran, 72, was an angry loner who seemed to have a hatred for the world – not just his ex-wife – the people he crossed paths with on Tuesday.

“I think his whole life was falling apart,” said the man, who rented an apartment with Tran, and asked not to be named because he did not want to be associated with the shooter.

“He didn’t have a job, he sold his possessions, very few friends, and I believe he didn’t have any close friends,” the man said, adding that he spoke to Tran daily at the time. “No family, no children, no job, no money. He was hopeless and desperate.”

Law enforcement officers open the door of a van in Torrance, California where a suspected suspect in the mass shooting that killed 10 people in Monterey Park on January 22, 2023 is believed to be hiding.
On Sunday, law enforcement officers open the door of a van in Torrance, Calif., where the shooter involved in the mass shooting in Monterey Park has taken refuge.Robin Beck/AFP – Getty Images

While police struggled to find a motive for the bloodshed, they speculated that Tran may have shot his ex-wife when he burst into the Star Ballroom and opened fire on Saturday. The former tenant said he doubted Tran was targeting her.

“They have been divorced for almost 20 years,” the friend said. “His ex-wife also loves to dance, so they ran into each other many times at parties or events. I don’t think his ex-wife was the cause of his massacre.”

Nevertheless, Tran often blamed his ex-wife for the decline of his trucking business. Records show that Tran registered a business called Tran’s Trucking in Monterey Park in 2002 and that it was dissolved two years later.

“His ex-wife talked him into closing the business and he sold the truck,” the man said.

Tran committed suicide as police approached his getaway van 12 hours after he fatally shot 11 people and injured nine more in the Star Ballroom. He later broke into the ballroom and studio of Lai Lai in the nearby Alhambra, but was disarmed by 26-year-old Brandon Tsai and escaped.

Tran, according to a friend, was also at odds with the dance hall goers at both venues, and especially with some of the dance instructors.

“He always complained that the instructors spoke badly of him or tried to do something bad to him,” said a friend. “I’m not entirely sure if this is true, but he always complained. He thought that these instructors were unfriendly to him, they tried to exclude him from the group, as it were.

The man said he had lived in an apartment complex owned by Tran for between seven and nine years. He said they stopped talking in 2015 when he moved out and Tran refused to return the man’s bail.

The dispute was settled in small claims court, where the judge sided with the tenant, court records show.

Most recently, Tran lived in the Los Angeles suburb of Hemet, but he previously called San Gabriel home. The predominantly Asian city is about 10 minutes’ drive from Monterey Park.

The former neighbor, who also asked not to be named, said they lived across the street from each other for about two decades on a modest street in an area that was once predominantly Italian but now mostly Asian and Latino.

Tran, according to the man, was quiet and polite and mostly kept to himself. According to a former neighbor, Tran went by the pseudonym “Andy” at the time and was a carpet cleaner, sometimes cleaning his neighbors’ carpets for free.

Although not rich, Tran could afford an old Rolls-Royce that he kept parked in his driveway, the source said. He also recalled seeing a white van parked in a modest lot, not unlike the one in which Tran died.

But his most vivid memory of Tran was waking up 15 years ago to the sounds of Tran and a woman he only knew by sight, arguing in the street.

“You could see the saucers flying,” the neighbor said. “Plates smashed against the street and he yelled at her.”

According to a former neighbor, every weekend Tran could be seen leaving the house in his best clothes.

“He always went dancing,” he said. “Otherwise, we didn’t see much of him.

Tran’s last address was at The Lakes at Hemet West, a closed “active living community” for people over 55.

The police have been searching the house for clues since Sunday and have not been able to explain why Tran is resorting to violence.

“What pushed the madman to this? We don’t know, but we intend to find out,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said earlier.

According to Luna, Tran was once arrested for illegal possession of a firearm in 1990, but his record was otherwise clean.

He also contacted Hemet police this month, claiming his family tried to poison him 10 to 20 years ago. According to police, this allegation was never investigated because Tran did not provide any evidence to support his claims.

Lawrence Steinberg, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Temple University in Philadelphia, said Tran doesn’t fit the typical mass shooter profile.

“From FBI data, we know that the peak age for violent crime in the US is around 19 or 20 years old, and it has remained virtually constant over the years,” Steinberg said in a statement. “So this seems to be a period of development where people are more at risk of committing violent acts.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline at 800-273-8255, text HOME at 741741, or visit the website SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.

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