The 72-year-old Asian man suspected of killing 10 people before shooting himself as police closed in on him was a regular at the California dance club where America’s latest gun massacre took place.
Huu Can Tran allegedly used a semi-automatic handgun to spray bullets around the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, a majority-Asian city near Los Angeles.
Twenty minutes later, he was accosted and disarmed by a young worker at another dance club, before going on the run.
As the small town tried to come to terms with the tragedy, which occurred as many members of the Asian community celebrated Lunar New Year, an image of the suspect began to emerge.
Also read: After California shooting on Lunar New Year, Asian Americans are distraught
Tran, whose name is typically Vietnamese, immigrated to the United States from China, according to a marriage certificate his ex-wife showed CNN.
The woman, who did not want to be named, told the network that she met Tran two decades ago at Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where he was a regular.
The studio, whose website says it was founded in 1990, offers classes in everything from children’s ballet to Latin steps and belly dancing.
Tran’s ex-wife says he introduced himself to her at the club and offered her free, informal lessons.
The couple married a short time later, but the marriage did not last.
She said Tran, who sometimes worked as a trucker, was not violent but could be impatient, especially if he felt he was being cheated, for example if she messed up a dance move.
Court records cited by CNN show the couple divorced in 2006.
A man who said he knew Tran well in the late 2000s and early 2010s told the broadcaster that he had been a regular at the dance studio at the time.
The friend described how Tran drove almost every night from his home in San Gabriel, a city three miles (five kilometers) from Monterey Park.
But Tran was complaining about the dance teachers, who he said were saying “bad things about him,” the man told CNN, describing Tran as “hostile to a lot of people there.”
He sold his San Gabriel home in 2013.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Tran had been living in a mobile home in Hemet, a city of 90,000 about 85 miles east of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives were reportedly searching his residence there at the Lakes at Hemet West mobile home park, which bills itself as an “active living community for 55.”
The Times, citing police sources, said Tran had recently visited a police station in Hemet, where he complained that his family was trying to poison him.
Also read: California mass shooting suspect killed himself in pickup truck: Police
The newspaper said investigators were focusing on Tran’s previous interactions in the two dance studios and looking into whether relationship jealousy was the motive.
Tran committed suicide on Sunday when police officers approached the white pickup truck he was driving.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said investigators were looking into Tran’s mental health and criminal history.
“The investigation continues,” he told reporters. “We want to know how something so horrible can happen.”
