Death toll rises to 11 as police continue to investigate motive in California mass shooting

The death toll from a weekend dance hall massacre in California blamed on a 72-year-old gunman has risen to 11 after one of the 10 peoplewounded died in hospital.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services said Monday that one of the four people being treated at the L.A. County-USC Medical Center has died of gunshot wounds.One of the wounded patients at the hospital was in serious condition, and the two others were recovering, the department said in a news release.

Investigators are still searching for a motive in themass shooting the largest in Los Angeles County history andsay a search of the suspected gunman's home discovered a rifle, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and evidence he was manufacturing gun silencers.

Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said investigators have not yet established why the 72-year-old suspectHuu Can Tran opened fire.

"What drove a mad man to do this? We don't know, but we intend to find out," Luna said.

Weapons, ammunition recovered

Police say hefired 42 rounds at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where 11 people were killed and nine wounded.

Tran then drove to another nearby dance hall where Brandon Tsay, who works at the establishment started by his grandparents, wrested a weapon away from him and saved "countless lives," Luna said.

"He's the hero that disarmed the suspect," Luna said. "What a brave man he is."

According to Luna, Tsay took a 9-mm semi-automatic assault weapon from the gunmanat the Lai Lai Ballroom.

Tsay told ABC's Good Morning America that he thought he was going to die during the confrontation.

"Something came over me. I realized I needed to get the weapon away from him, I needed to take this weapon, disarm him or else everybody would have died," Tsay said. "When I got the courage, I lunged at him with both my hands, grabbed the weapon and we had a struggle."

WATCH | Brandon Tsay confronted gunman, wrestled weapon from him:

Man describes wrestling gun away from California mass shooter

2 years ago

Duration 2:00

A man who wrestled the weapon away from the California mass shooter has now spoken out, describing a terrifying fight to disarm the gunman. The death toll from Saturday's shooting in Monterey Park, Calif., has risen to 11 as police try to determine a possible motive.

Once Tsay seized the gun, he pointed it at the man and shouted: "Get the hell out of here, I'll shoot, get away, go!"

The assailant paused, but then headed back to his van, and Tsay called the police, the gun still in his hand.

Tsay, who works a few days a week at the dance hall his grandparents started, told The New York Times that he acted alone. Stills from security footage shown on Good Morning America showed only the two men struggling for the gun.

Police said Tran was later found dead in his van from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.He had a previous arrest for unlawful possession of a firearm in 1990 and otherwise had a limited criminal history, Luna said. The sheriff could not immediately say if gun arrest at a time when firearms laws were different would have barred him from owning weapons.

Luna said a search of Tran's home by his officers found a .308-caliber rifle, an unknown amount of bullets and evidence he was making homemade firearm suppressors that muffle the sound of the weapons.

The massacre struck one of California's largest celebrations of a holiday observed in many Asian cultures, dealing another blow to a community that has been the target of high-profile violence in recent years.

The attack at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park was the deadliest in the U.S. since May 24, 2022, when 21 people were killed in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Heartbreak for Asian American community

Authorities have shared very little about Tran.

Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people on the eastern edge of Los Angeles and is composed mostly of Asian immigrants from China or first-generation Asian Americans. The shooting happened in the heart of its downtown where red lanterns decorated the streets for the Lunar New Year festivities.

"We haven't had a celebration like this in three years, so this was momentous. People came out in droves," said Mayor Pro Tem Jose Sanchez.

Tony Lai, 35, of Monterey Park was stunned when he came out for his early morning walk to learn that the noises he heard in the night were gunshots.

"I thought maybe it was fireworks. I thought maybe it had something to do with Lunar New Year," he said. "And we don't even get a lot of fireworks here. It's weird to see this. It's really safe here."

WATCH | Suspect had reportedly frequented Lai Lai Ballroom prior to shooting:

Investigators searching for motive in California mass shooting

2 years ago

Duration 4:39

Police say the gunman who fatally shot five men and five women in a ballroom dancing club in Monterey Park, Calif., during Lunar New Year celebrations died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Monterey Park on Sunday, meeting with victims and their families as well as local officials. The massacre sent shock waves through Asian American communities around the nation, prompting police from San Francisco to New York to step up patrols at Lunar New Year celebrations in their own cities.

But Asian American advocacy groups said it was another blow after years of high-profile anti-Asian violence around the country.

"Having this tragedy on one of our most important holidays it feels very personal to our community," said Connie Chung Joe, CEO of the non-profit Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California.