No One Dared to Run: Testimonials from the Bloody Los Angeles Shooting

Grace was in the back corner of the ballroom, practicing her steps, joining about 100 other patrons who knew the Star Ballroom Dance Studio as the place to be on a Saturday night. Many were in front of the wall-sized mirror, performing their dance moves. No one expected the shooting that ended in at least 11 dead in Los Angeles, California on Saturday night.

The music of “guangchang wu,” a square dance popular with middle-aged and older Chinese patrons, recalled Grace, a dance student in her 50s who had been attending the Star Ballroom for about four years.

Then suddenly heard a series of explosions They looked like fireworks. She looked towards the entrance and he has seen people collapse on the ground. Then he dived under a table while others frantically did the same.

He could see the shooter and his long semi-automatic weapon with which, it later emerged, he killed ten people. This Monday, another person who was injured also died.

“Nobody dared to run away, we all fell to the ground, hiding where we could,” he said in an interview on Sunday afternoon. She asked to be identified only by her English name because she did not want people in the community to know she was there at the time of the shooting.

“Nobody Could Go Out” commented. A man who called “Ma laoban” – “Boss Ma” – was near the entrance and appeared to have been the first to be shot, Grace said. Two people next to him also collapsed as five or six gunshots occurred in quick succession.

The gunman appeared to be out of bullets and quickly scuttled away before unleashing again a second barrage of gunfire further into the ballroom. A few people who appeared to have been killed were lying on the wooden floor. Others hid under a table or ran into a back room. The entire mass shooting lasted about five minutes.Grace noticed.

“I saw it, but it was very far away and the lights were dim. I couldn’t see her face clearly,” the woman said, referring to the attacker. She also said she did not recognize the suspect in photos released by local authorities Sunday morning while she was on the run.

The suspect then committed suicide On Sunday, hours after the shooting, in a Torrance parking lot surrounded by police, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. The attacker was identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran.

second attack

After the shooter left, several people called 911, and police appeared to arrive quickly. They were taken to the police station for hours of detailed questioning of the suspect, Grace said.

As it turned out, after killing ten people, Tran drove near another ballroom dance studio in the Alhambra, about three miles away, where two customers snatched his gun from him and the suspect fled on foot, Sheriff Luna said.

Grace said she didn’t get home until 3 a.m. Sunday and only slept for about an hour because her phone was ringing with calls from friends and acquaintances who knew Star was around.

She clenched her heart, describing how scared and shocked she still felt a day after the shooting. She wasn’t sure if she could go back to the studio, where she said her dancing had made her happy and healthy.

“It brings me joy. My instructor is very positive and he also brings me joy,” she said sadly. “Once the suspect is arrested, maybe after a period of recovery, maybe he will come back.”

Source: New York Times

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