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Kamala Harris visit coincides with vigil for Monterey Park mass shooting victims

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Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Monterey Park Wednesday, Jan. 25 to meet with the families of the victims killed in Saturday’s mass shooting that left 11 dead, the worst mass shooting in Los Angeles County history.

The vice president will arrive in Los Angeles in the afternoon, a visit that will coincide with a vigil outside the site of the massacre, Star Ballroom Dance Studio. It will be the third vigil in as many days in the shaken city, where mourners came out in droves Tuesday night at Monterey City Hall.

Demonstrators are also planning to condemn gun violence tonight, as they too plan to descend on the city.

Related: The victims in the Monterey Park mass shooting

A motive for the 72-year-old gunman’s rampage has not been determined.

Tuesday night’s vigil, where hundreds gathered, was an outpouring of grief, support and remembrance for 11 people, whose smiling faces were singed into collective memories in large posters of each victim erected at a makeshift memorial.

Local officials spoke and smoke from prayer candles filled the air. Prayers were offered by local pastors in Taiwanese, Cantonese and other languages to offer comfort to the tight-knit community.”

City Councilmember Yvonne Yiu said she cried the last two days after learning Ming Wei Ma, the owner of Star Ballroom & Dance Studio and the first person to rush the suspect during the shooting, had been killed.

“I knew Teacher Ma for a long time,” Yiu said. “We sang and danced together.”

Eric Sham visits a makeshift memorial on Tuesday, January 24, 2023 for those killed in a mass shooting at The Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

The mass shooting occurred at 10:22 p.m. Saturday at Star Ballroom Dance Studio, in the 100 block of West Garvey Avenue, according to Homicide Bureau Capt. Andrew Meyer of the LASD.

Huu Can Tran, 72, of Hemet opened fire inside the studio and, about 17 minutes later, he walked into Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in nearby Alhambra, where police believe he was going to kill others, if not for the actions of Brandon Tsay, whose family operates the studio. Tsay rested way Tran’s gun, and kicked him out of the establishment.

Tran fled to Torrance, where he fatally shot himself, inside a white van in a parking lot after being surrounded by police, authorities said.

A picture has begun to develop of a gunman who once frequented the Monterey Park dance hall.

He met his ex-wife at the dance hall, by offering her informal dance lessons. Tran had been known to have anger issues, according to reports, but was never violent toward her. He filed for divorce in 2005, and it became final a year later.

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During a search of his home, investigators found a rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and evidence that Tran was making firearm suppressors. Investigators also seized electronics.

Tran lived in The Lakes at Hemet West, a mobile-home park on the west end of Hemet. He had a minimal criminal history, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna: A 1990 arrest for unlawfully possessing a firearm.

On Jan. 7 and Jan. 9, Tran visited the Hemet Police Department, city spokesperson Alan Reyes said, and accused family members living in the Los Angeles area of fraud and theft – and trying to poison him at least a decade ago.

He said he would return with documentation. But he never did.

Tran was quiet and kept to himself, according to one Hemet resident who lives in the same senior residential park.

Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese speaks to the media in front of a makeshift memorial in front of the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park on Tuesday, January 24, 2023. A gunman killed multiple people at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio late Saturday amid Lunar New Years celebrations in the predominantly Asian American community of Monterey Park. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)

Investigators were still looking into the motive behind the attacks, Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese said Tuesday, echoing what L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said was a very complex case.

“We have the facts, but we’re focusing on the motive,” Wiese said. “We may never know.”

Saturday’s mass shooting claimed the most victims in Los Angeles County since 2008, when a disgruntled ex-husband killed 10 people, including himself, in Covina. It is the deadliest shooting in the United States since the massacre in Uvalde, Texas in May.

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Harris acknowledged the context in which her visit to California comes — noting coinciding mass shootings in Half Moon Bay, where seven were gunned down, and Oakland.

“As we grieve Saturday’s mass shooting in California, we already face two more this week alone in Half Moon Bay and Oakland,” she said in a Tuesday tweet. “Tomorrow I will visit Monterey Park to stand and mourn with the community. Doug and I continue to pray for healing and recovery for all those impacted.”

Staff writers Josh Cain, Brian Rokos, and Scott Schwebke contributed to this report. City News Service also contributed to this report.

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