The city clerk of Monterey Park, California, released Thursday the 911 dispatch audio recorded in the aftermath of the Lunar New Year shooting that took the lives of 11 people.
“Send the police right away, he might start shooting again. I’m outside the building,” one caller is heard saying. “I don’t know if anyone’s hurt or not.”
CALIFORNIA MASS SHOOTING: WHO IS SUSPECT HUU CAN TRAN?
The audio captures 911 dispatchers’ struggle to collect even basic information amid the panic. Due to the size of the crowd and the speed of the gunfire, some callers were unable to give even the skin color or general appearance of the shooter.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, at podium, briefs the media outside the Civic Center in Monterey Park, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
“Somebody said he has a gun,” another caller says, having not seen the mass shooting himself. “Somebody saw.”
CALIFORNIA MASS SHOOTER’S MOTIVE MAY HAVE TO DO WITH ‘SOME PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS,’ MONTEREY PARK MAYOR SAYS
A third caller — the first to make contact with the police after the shooting — gave a first-person account of what transpired as he and his girlfriend attempted to escape.
“We start the car and try to leave, and suddenly somebody come next to the window and shoot the window,” he told the dispatcher.
Huu Can Tran, the suspected Monterey Park mass shooter.
(LASD )
Asked whether his girlfriend was awake or breathing, the caller could not confirm either.
CALIFORNIA MASS SHOOTING: GUNMAN HUU CAN TRAN DIDN’T KNOW MONTEREY PARK DANCE HALL VICTIMS, SHERIFF SAYS
Huu Can Tran, the 72-year-old gunman who killed 11 people Saturday night inside a ballroom dance hall in Monterey Park, California, had no known relationship to the victims, and a motive for the massacre during Lunar New Year celebrations was still unclear, investigators said Wednesday.
A family gathers at a memorial outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, in Monterey Park, Calif. A gunman killed multiple people at the ballroom dance studio late Saturday amid Lunar New Year’s celebrations in the predominantly Asian American community.
(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
The emergency calls have offered no clues of Tran’s motive or any possible connections between the shooter and his victims.
A man who described himself as a longtime friend of Tran told The Associated Press that the 72-year-old had offered free lessons at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in search of a new dance partner after divorcing his wife, yet complained that the people there did not like him.
The victims who died following the attack at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, according to Fox 11 Los Angeles, were: Valentino Alvero, 68; Hong Jian, 62; Yu Kao, 72; Lilian Li, 63; Ming Wei Ma, 72; My Nhan, 65; Diana Tom, 72; Muoi Ung, 67; Chia Yau, 76; Wen Yu, 64; and Xiujuan Yu, 57.
Source: Fox News
