Monterey Park killer didn't know any of his victims: "It doesn't make sense," police say about the massacre

By Stefanie Dazio, Amy Taxin and Brian Melley -

The man who shot 11 people to death Saturday night at a dance hall in Monterey Park (in Los Angeles, California) had no connection to the victims, the Los Angeles County Sheriff said Wednesday. , Robert Moon.

Huu Can Tran, 72, entered the Star Ballroom Dance Studio and fired indiscriminately into the mostly elderly crowd gathered to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

According to the sheriff, the killer hadn't been to that dance club in at least five years, and he didn't seem to have anyone in mind as a specific target for his attack.

“So far we have not been able to establish a connection to any victim,” Luna said.

Vigil in Monterey Park on Tuesday.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

The sheriff said it is still unknown how long he had been planning the massacre, nor what prompted him to fire at least 42 rounds and take the time to reload his weapon, a variant of the MAC-10 semi-automatic pistol with a 30-round magazine.

[Young man disarms Monterey Park killer and prevents tragedy]

Police found a motorcycle Wednesday that the man parked a block from the club to escape the scene after the shooting, according to investigators.

After searching his home and analyzing the documents found in the truck in which he took his life on Sunday after hours of persecution, his motives remain a mystery: "It doesn't make sense," Luna said, "it really doesn't has it".

"I'm not going to send my agents door to door waking people up"

The shooting occurred at 10:22 p.m. Saturday (West Coast time), just an hour after tens of thousands of people turned out for Lunar New Year festivities in the city, an event of particular importance to the majority of its residents of Asian descent.

The identities of the 11 killed in the massacre at a dance club in Monterey Park are released

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About 20 minutes after carrying out the Monterey Park shooting, Tran walked into another dance hall in the town of Alhambra, a few miles to the south, with the same intent.

However, an employee confronted him and managed to disarm him after a brief struggle.

He was able to run away, however.

Hours later, he took his own life in a van as agents who had suspected the car approached.

The police action caused controversy because an alert was not sent to the population of the area informing them of the massacre and that the attacker was on the run until five hours after it occurred.

[The Monterey Park killer took his own life in the van in which he escaped after the shooting when he was approached by the police]

Monterey Park Police Chief Scott Wiese defended his action, claiming he did not have enough data at the time to effectively alert residents.

The Los Angeles police were alerted, he explained, but in his opinion there was no point in sending an alert to the residents of Monterey Park at night, even knowing that the man had tried to attack elsewhere after the massacre.

"I'm not going to send my agents door to door waking people up and telling them we're looking for an Asian man in Monterey Park," Wiese said, "It's not going to do us any good."

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Authorities revealed that Tran, of Vietnamese descent and who had been in the US for seven years, bought the submachine gun in Monterey Park in 1999, but it was not registered in California, where the weapon and its high-capacity magazines are illegal.

Luna said the man committed suicide with a registered semi-automatic pistol, and a registered bolt-action rifle was found at his home in the small town of Hemet, located 70 miles from Monterey Park.

His only criminal record was a 1990 arrest for illegal possession of a firearm, but there is no indication of a conviction.