Sheriff: Gunman didn’t know Monterey Park dance hall victims

By STEFANIE DAZIO, AMY TAXIN and BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say the 72-year-old gunman who sprayed bullets into a Southern California ballroom dance hall, killing 11 people, had no known connection with the victims and investigators are still trying to determine a motive for the massacre. The Los Angeles County sheriff says Huu Can Tran fired 42 shots into the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park on Saturday night using an unregistered gun he bought in 1999. Sheriff Robert Luna says Tran used another registered handgun to kill himself in a van as police closed in. A rifle also was found at his home in Hemet. Authorities say Tran, a Hong Kong immigrant, had not been to the ballroom in at least five years and did not have any connection with his victims.