The California man who charged at the suspect responsible for the deaths of at least 10 people in Saturday’s Lunar New Year mass shooting said he knew he had to “disarm” the shooter “or else everybody would have died.”
Brandon Tsay was enjoying a Chinese New Year dance party at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California, when he heard the front door creek followed by “a metal object clinking together, as if they were rubbing,” he told Good Morning America Monday.
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“That’s when I turned around and saw that there was an Asian man holding a gun,” Tsay said. “My first thought was I was going to die here. This is it.”
EXCLUSIVE: “I realized I needed to get the weapon away from him, disarm him, or else everyone else would have died.”
Brandon Tsay, who helped disarm the gunman who allegedly shot 20 people, 10 fatally, during Lunar New Year celebration in CA, speaks out. https://t.co/O3eNuELr9O pic.twitter.com/OXTCXgml1u
— Good Morning America (@GMA) January 23, 2023
The 26-year-old said he did not recognize the man and had never seen him before.
“He didn’t seem like he was here for any money. He wasn’t here to rob us,” according to Tsay. “When he was looking around the room, it seemed like he was looking for targets, people to harm.”
When Tsay saw the suspect, identified by police as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, readying his weapon, he said, “something came over me.”
“I realized I needed to get the weapon away from him,” he said. “I needed to take this weapon, disarm him, or else everybody would have died.”
“When I got the courage, I lunged at him with both my hands, grabbed the weapon, and we had a struggle,” he continued. “We struggled into the lobby, trying to get this gun away from each other. He was hitting me across the face, bashing the back of my head. I was trying to use my elbows to separate the gun away from him.”
Eventually, Tsay said he was able to get the weapon away from the suspect and “shove him” aside.
I pointed the gun “at him, intimidate him, shout at him and say, ‘Get the Hell out of here! I’ll shoot! Get away! Go!'”
The suspect just stood there in front of him, Tsay said.
“I really thought I would have to shoot him if he came at me,” Tsay said. “This is when he turned around, walked out the door, and jogged back to his van.”
Following the incident, Tsay contacted the police.
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Tran was found dead in his vehicle Sunday 30 miles southwest of Monterey Park, and authorities said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a report.
Tran’s rampage left at least 10 people dead and 10 wounded.
