Did Huu Can Tran visit Star Ballroom Dance Studio before? Monterey gunman believed instructor said 'evil things' about him

The Lunar New Year celebrations at Monterey Park dance hall came to a tragic end on Saturday, January 21, 2023, when 72-year-old Huu Can Tran opened fire on the crowd, immediately killing eleven people and wounding nine others.

According to reports, the elderly gunman often frequented the California dance studio and was under the impression that he was disliked by the instructors teaching at the studio who allegedly said "evil things about him."

Following the carnage at the ballroom studio, law enforcement sources told LA Magazine that Huu Can Tran was "looking for his wife," and said:

"There is increasing evidence this was domestic violence."

Tran reportedly also attempted an attack on rival dance studio Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, possibly still searching for his wife, but was disarmed by community members before he could cause further damage.

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Ex-wife claims Huu Can Tran ran dance lessons at the Monterey Park studio decades ago

The tight-knit Asian-American community in Monterey Park was left devastated by a recent shooting that killed eleven people and wounded nine others. The shooter, suspected to be 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, reportedly killed himself in a white van during a stand-off with police in Torrance, about 30 miles from Monterey Park.

According to reports, the elderly mass shooter was looking for his "wife," and while it is unclear whether he was married at the time of the shooting, Tran has an ex-wife. Chester Chong, the head of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles and a community leader in Monterey Park, told The Post that the shooting could have been motivated by jealousy over not being invited to the celebration while she was.

While the motive behind the massive bloodshed remains undetermined, sources have revealed that Huu Can Tran met his former wife at the very studio where he opened fire on Saturday night. The former wife reportedly told CNN that she met Tran at the studio two decades ago when he offered free dance lessons.

While the two of them got married soon after meeting each other, the marriage apparently did not last, and fell apart by 2005, when Huu Can Tran filed for divorce.

A longtime acquaintance of the alleged shooter told CNN that he remembered Tran as a frequent presence at the dance studio. According to the acquaintance, Tran visited “almost every night” in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but was "hostile" to a lot of people at the studio.

Regarding the weapon used by Huu Can Tran, LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said:

"I believe the weapon that was recovered at the Alhambra location is not legal to have here in the State of California."

Another gun was also discovered in the white van where Tran fatally shot himself.