The Monterey Park, Calif., mass shooting that killed 11 people is America’s longest-running mass shooting. At least six decades of shooters, according to researchers studying the topic.
Hu Canh Tran, 72, is the oldest person to shoot four or more people in a public space, excluding domestic and gang disputes, since at least 1966, according to James Densley, founder of the Nonviolence Project. , a nonprofit research center.
“It’s so rare to see mass shooters this old, even unprecedented ones, that it makes you wonder what happened in their lives so recently to push them over the edge,” Densley said. “A mass shooting is really the last act, and it can indicate that a person has reached a point in their life where it doesn’t matter whether they live or die.”
Including domestic disputes, Tran is the second longest-serving mass murderer, according to a database compiled by USA TODAY, the Associated Press and Northeastern University. In 2011, a 73-year-old man was targeted and In Yuma County, Arizona, he killed five people, including his ex-wife, his lawyer and three friends, before killing himself.
Live Updates:Death toll rises to 11 as Monterey Park mourns and struggles for answers after shooting
California shooting time:How the horrific attack at the dance studio in Monterey Park unfolded
Police said Tran opened fire at the dance hall on Saturday night, hours after the Lunar New Year holiday. He then walked into another dance studio near the Alhambra, where two men held him at gunpoint and he fled in a white van, police said.
Tran was found Sunday in a van in nearby Torrance, where authorities found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
According to relatives, Tran once taught free classes at Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where the murder took place. Authorities were still investigating the motive Monday.
Dansley said Tran is two years older than the oldest known mass shooter. It was 1981. According to data from the Violence Project, mass shooters are almost always male (98%) and the average age is 32.
But the age range varies depending on the shooting location. While mass shooters at offices, warehouses, and places of worship tend to be older, shooters at K-12 schools, colleges, and universities tend to be younger.
In the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, the shooters were over 50 years old; Bakersfield, California in 2018; Jersey City, New Jersey in 2019; Milwaukee, Wis., in 2020; and San Jose, California in 2021.
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