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The heroic bystander who brought down the Monterey Park gunman after he murdered 10 people in a California dance hall spoke this morning to describe how he brought down the 72-year-old man.
Brandon Tsay was at the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio in Alhambra at 10:40pm last night when gunman Huu Can Tran burst through the doors armed with an illegal semi-automatic pistol.
Tsay is a 26-year-old computer programmer whose family owns Lai Lai. He was helping out on Saturday, when dozens had come to the ballroom for a Lunar New Year party.
Tran had already killed 10 people at the Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park. Police sources say that he was ‘looking for his wife’. It is not clear if she is among the victims.
Hero Brandon Tsay, 26, seized the gun from Huu Can Tran’s hands after he turned up at the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio in Alhambra on Saturday night looking for more victims. Tran, shown wearing a hat and dressed entirely in black, had just killed ten people in another studio.
Tsay,. On January 26, she told Good Morning America that she thought she was going to die when she saw Tran walk into the ballroom with her gun. “Something occurred to me…I thought I had to take this gun away from him or else we’re all going to die,” she said.
Tran was looking for more victims when Tsay, whose family owns the Lai Lai dance hall, confronted him, snatching his gun after a fight and scaring him off.
In an interview with Good morning america on Monday, he described the moment he realized the shooter had come for the kill.
Shooter Huu Can Tran committed suicide on Sunday after going on the run
‘It was Chinese New Year, we were hosting a social dance party.
I was in the lobby and it was already late. Most of our customers have already left, I was looking towards the ballroom.
“That’s when I heard the sound of the front door creaking, followed instantly by the sound of metal objects rubbing against each other.
“I turned around and saw that there was an Asian man with a gun. My first thought was an Asian man with a gun.
“The first thing I thought was that I was going to die here. That’s all.’
He said The New York Times in a separate interview that it was ‘primal instinct’ to attack him, and that Tran’s eyes were ‘menacing’.
Tsay had never seen Tran before.
He said he instantly knew he was there to commit a mass shooting and was scanning the room for targets.
There was a fight between the pair, with Tran punching Tsay and hitting him with the gun.
Tsay fought back, eventually pulling Tran out of the ballroom foyer before she could shoot anyone.
Tsay knocked the gunman’s glasses off his face in the struggle. Tran fled and then committed suicide
The struggle was at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in the Alhambra, the gunman’s second stop
‘I realized he wasn’t here to rob us, he wasn’t looking for money. She was looking around the room. It seemed that she was looking for targets, people to harm.
‘Something came over me: I realized I needed to take this weapon, disarm it, or else they would all have died.
“When I got up the courage, I lunged at him with both hands, grabbed the gun, and we struggled to the lobby, trying to get the gun from us. He was punching me in the face and hitting my head.
Something seized me: I realized that I needed to take this weapon, disarm it, or else they would all have died.
‘I was trying to create some distance. Finally, at one point, I was able to get the gun away from him, push him to the side, and create some distance.
“I was able to grab the gun and point it at him, intimidate him, yell, ‘Get out of here! I’m going to shoot! Get out!’
‘At this point, I thought he would run away. She was contemplating whether to fight or flee. I really thought I would have to shoot him. That’s when he turned and walked out the door, walking back to his truck.
I immediately called the police, gun still in hand. I couldn’t believe what happened,’ he said.
Their first stop was the Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park, where ten were killed.
After the Monterey Park shooting, the shooter entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra. But the customers took the gun from him and he fled.
Shortly after he was seen at the hospital for treatment, the police detained Tran. A SWAT team surrounded the van after a three-hour standoff.
After an hour-long standoff, Tran died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the van he used to flee after his attempted second shooting was thwarted by ‘hero’ patrons on Saturday.
Tran was carrying what was described as a semi-automatic handgun with an extended magazine, and a second handgun was discovered in the truck where he was found dead, authorities said.
From the Lai Lai ballroom, Tran is believed to have traveled to a nearby hospital.
He then returned to his white pickup truck, which had stolen license plates, and drove 22 miles to Torrance.
A SWAT team surrounded the vehicle and broke it up, finding him dead inside.
Police have yet to confirm exactly what led him to commit the murders, but a source told LA Magazine that it was a “domestic dispute” and that he was looking for “his wife.”
His first wife, whom he divorced in 2005, has since spoken anonymously to CNN to describe how they met at Star Dance, where she gave lessons for years.
The woman said that he often scolded her if she got a dance move wrong, and that he was quick to anger.
It’s unclear what Tran was working for.
Tsay’s family praised his efforts, saying he was lucky to be alive.
It was just my son. He could have died. He’s lucky, someone was taking care of him,” his father Tom told the Times.
Hunter Zhao, 41, holds flowers in honor of the victims killed in the Saturday ballroom studio shooting in Monterey Park, Calif., Sunday, January 22, 2023.