Disarming the shooter: ‘I was gonna die here’
The dance social at Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio was nearly over Saturday night, with just a few people left on the ballroom floor. Brandon Tsay, whose family owns the Alhambra studio and who works at the ticket office, was in the lobby looking into the studio when he heard the front door close, followed by the sound of metal clinking, he said.
“That’s when I turned around and saw there was an Asian man holding a gun,” Tsay told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “My first thought was I was gonna die here. This was it.”
Tsay said the man appeared to be looking around the room “for targets” and “people to harm.”
In interviews with the New York Times and ABC, the 26-year-old said that he lunged at the man with both his hands, setting off a struggle in the lobby for control of the gun. “I needed to take this weapon, disarm him or else everybody would have died,” Tsay told “Good Morning America.”
The gunman was hitting him across the face and bashing the back of his head, he said. Tsay said he eventually shoved the man aside and grabbed the gun. He pointed it at the man and yelled, “Get the hell out of here!” he said. “I’ll shoot, get away! Go!”
Tsay said the man lingered for a few moments before walking out the door and getting into his van. Tsay said he called police “with the gun still in my hand.”
He told ABC that he did not recognize the man.
Tsay said he was unaware that just 20 minutes earlier, the gunman, identified by authorities as 72year-old Huu Can Tran of Hemet, had killed 10 people and injured several others when he opened fire in a crowded ballroom in nearby Monterey Park.
The death toll rose to 11 Monday after the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services announced in a statement that one of the victims being treated at LAC+USC Medical Center succumbed to their injuries.
Tom Tsay, Brandon’s father, rushed to the Alhambra dance studio after learning about the shooting, gripped with fear.
“The first thing I did was ask whether Brandon was OK,” Tsay said in an interview outside of the family’s San Marino home early Monday, adding that his daughter reassured him Brandon was safe.
It wasn’t until much later that he learned of his son’s heroism, he said.
“I’m very proud,” Tsay said. “That night was a tragedy. It could have been much worse if he wasn’t disarmed.”
Brandon Tsay called his sister, Brenda Tsay, just after he took the gun from Tran and then called the police.
Just a few people were still dancing and socializing when Tran came in. Many of them were longtime customers who visit the studio, she said.
When her brother called, he wasn’t making sense, thinking that he was involved in an attempted robbery, Tsay said.
“Obviously, I started to ask questions,” she said. “He said, ‘Don’t ask questions. Just go through and look through the thing.’”
Brandon Tsay was referring to video surveillance.
“Once I saw what happened, my stomach turned,” Brenda Tsay said. “I was so upset, so angry to be honest. I felt a little guilty because I wasn’t there.”
Tsay and her father were not at the studio when Tran arrived. Brandon Tsay is usually not there, but on Saturday he was sitting at the front desk near the entrance.
When she finally saw her brother in person, he was calm but running on adrenaline. “I’m just happy that he’s alive,” Brenda Tsay. “I’m just happy he wasn’t shot.”
She described her brother as compassionate, nice and caring.
“He’s never hurt anyone in his life,” said Tsay, adding that “he’s braver than the rest of us.”
But he’s shaken up, Tsay said, and trying to carry on with little tasks throughout the day. He’s been sleeping a lot, she said.
Brandon Tsay was sleeping as his father spoke with reporters Monday.
The gunman had walked into Lai Lai “probably with the intent to kill two more people,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference Sunday.
Luna, who said Sunday that it was “two community members” who disarmed the suspect, officials and others in California and across the country have commended Tsay as a hero, stressing that his actions prevented further tragedy.
“A lot of people have been telling me how much courage I had,” Tsay said. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the ability to have adversity to fear when fearful events happen such as this.”
He said his heart went out to all the victims, families and community members. “I hope they could find the courage and the strength to persevere,” he said.