“He might start shooting again”: Officials release audio of 911 call during Monterey Park attack

On Thursday, February 2, Monterey Park authorities released audio of a 911 call during the mass shooting allegedly perpetrated by 72-year-old Huu Can Tran.

Per the Pasadena Star News, on January 21, Huu Can Tran fatally shot 11 people and injured nine others at the Star Ballroom Dance studio. Subsequently, Tran was reportedly driven to the Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio in Alhambra. He supposedly attempted to perpetrate another shooting before bystander Brandon Tsay stopped him. Huu Can Tran committed suicide shortly after.

In an audio recording of the incident, a caller can be heard telling the Monterey Park operator about the gunfire.

A man tells the operator:

"Somebody is using a gun shooting people inside the studio so we just came out. You better send police here right away. He might start shooting again."

When the caller was asked if anyone was injured in the attack, he said that he did not know:

“It happened too fast. Everybody ran away.”

Monterey Park authorities have not confirmed the motive behind the shooting.

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The first calls from the Monterey Park shooting

ABC reported that in the first 911 call to operators, a man could be heard telling the operator that his girlfriend had been shot in the attack.

The operator can be heard asking the man:

“Is your girlfriend awake?”

The man answers:

"I'm not sure."

The man told fire dispatch that he was leaving the party when he saw someone trying to break his car window in what he suspected to be a break-in. He said the car window had been shot out, hitting his girlfriend, 65-year-old Mymy Nhan.

The caller asked Mymy to say something, but she remained unresponsive.

“My, can you talk to me? No, she cannot talk.”

The man who made the 911 call can be heard saying:

“Oh, no. Maybe she died. I’m not sure.”

A different operator from Monterey Park Police asked the caller for information that could help officers identify the shooter. The operator then asks the caller to wave down the police officers so they can remove him from the scene.

The caller can be heard shouting at Monterey Park Police officers.

“Come here, please. Help! Right here! Right here! Right here!”

Shortly after the second shooting attempt at Alhambra, authorities tracked the suspect to Torrance, where they approached him while he was sitting in a parking lot in what appeared to be a stolen van.

The Orange County Register reported that as authorities surrounded the van, they heard a single gunshot. Huu Can Tran was found dead behind the steering wheel with a Norinco handgun.