Youngest Monterey Park Victim Was in Her 50s

'We are starting the Lunar New Year broken,' relatives of another victim say
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 23, 2023 1:29 PM CST
Youngest Monterey Park Victim Was in Her 50s
Police tape cordons off the Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

At 72, Monterey Park suspect Huu Can Tran was unusually old for a mass shooter, and authorities say some of his victims were around the same age. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner said Monday that out of the five women and five men killed in the Saturday night shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, the youngest was a woman in her 50s and while the oldest were three men in their 70s, the San Jose Mercury News reports. So far, authorities have named two victims, both women: My Nhan, 65, and Lilan Li, 63. The names of others are being withheld pending notification of relatives. Friends have identified studio owner Ming Wei Ma as another victim, saying he rushed the shooter in a "final act of selflessness."

"We are starting the Lunar New Year broken," the family of My Nhan, known to her family as Mymy, said in a statement, per the New York Times. "We never imagined her life would end so suddenly." Authorities are still trying to determine the motive behind the nation's deadliest mass shooting since the Uvalde school massacre in May last year, the AP reports. "We do understand that he may have had a history of visiting this dance hall and perhaps the motivation has to do with some personal relationships," said Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo. "But that’s something that I think investigators are still uncovering and investigating."

Law enforcement sources tell the Times that witnesses say Tran, who killed himself in a parking lot Sunday as police closed in, chose some victims deliberately and killed others at random. Tran lived in a mobile home community in Hemet, around 80 miles from Monterey Park. He had recently contacted police in Hemet to say that his family was poisoning him, according to the Times' sources. (More Monterey Park shooting stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X