CCTV footage captures the moment a member of the public disarmed a gunman minutes after he sprayed bullets into a Southern California ballroom dance hall, killing 11 people. Brandon Tsay, 26, has been hailed as a hero for disarming Huu Can Tran, 72 at the Lai Lai Ballroom in Alhambra, a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California. In the footage, Mr Tsay can be seen wrestling the gun off the shooter in what appears to be an empty lobby in the dance hall.
An armed man, dressed in dark clothing and a hat, walks out of the picture and about 30 seconds later is seen struggling with Mr Tsay.
He manages to take the gun away from the attacker who then punches him in the head.
The men continue to struggle before Mr Tsay pushes Tran off him – leaving the attacker with no option but to flee the scene.
Mr Tsay has since opened up about the tense exchange, revealing that the attacker entered the venue and pointed the gun directly at him.
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Monterey mass shooting – as it happened
Before the shooting Saturday night, Huu Can Tran parked a motorcycle just a block away from the ballroom in Monterey Park, a city in the western San Gabriel Valley that neighbours Alhambra.
Investigators believe he had planned to use the motorcycle as a backup getaway vehicle, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a news conference Wednesday hours after police seized the motorcycle.
Tran opened fire on a mostly elderly crowd of dancers at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, killing 11 people and wounding nine, police said.
The carnage, during what should have been joyful Lunar New Year celebrations, sent ripples of fear through Asian American communities already dealing with increased hatred and violence directed at them.
Some reports had said Tran frequented the dance hall and fancied himself as an instructor, but Mr Luna said he hadn’t been there in at least five years and did not appear to target the victims specifically.
“We have not been able to establish a connection between the suspect and any of the victims thus far,” he said.
Mr Luna said it wasn’t clear how long Tran had been planning the attack in the city about eight miles (12.8 kilometers) from downtown Los Angeles or what prompted him to spray at least 42 bullets, taking time to reload his weapon, a variant of the MAC-10 semiautomatic machine pistol with a 30-round magazine.
Tran’s motive continued to elude detectives days after the tragedy as they searched piles of items and paperwork seized from Tran’s home and a van he used to flee, the sheriff said.
About 20 minutes after the carnage in Monterey Park, Tran entered another dance hall about 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) away in Alhambra, where an employee confronted and disarmed him during a brief struggle. Tran later shot himself in the van where his body was found Sunday morning.
