Suspect in California mass shooting found dead in a van: police

The man wanted for a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California during Lunar New Year is dead, apparently from suicide, police in Los Angeles have said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said on Sunday police had tracked a wanted van and when officers approached, they heard one gunshot from within the van.

"The suspect sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene," Luna said.

The man was named as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran.

"I can confirm that there are no outstanding suspects from the mass shooting incident," Luna said, adding the motive for the attack, which left 10 people dead, was not yet known.

"The investigation is still ongoing. Sheriff's homicide detectives are working around the clock gathering additional information and working on determining the motive behind this extremely tragic event," he said.

"The suspect sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene," Luna said.

The police hunt began earlier on Sunday after a man – described by police as Asian – began firing at a club in Monterey Park, a city in Los Angeles County with a large Asian community.

Ten were killed 10 and at least 10 other people were wounded.

Witnesses said he had fired indiscriminately, and appeared to be heavily armed.

Five of the dead were women and five men, officials said, without providing ages or names.

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Second incident

Luna also described a second incident in nearby Alhambra some 20 minutes later, in which an Asian man carrying a gun walked into a dance studio but was tackled and disarmed. The man fled and no injuries were reported.

Alhambra is about two miles (three kilometres) north of Monterey Park. Luna said investigators were probing whether the incidents were related.

The police stand-off around a van began late Sunday morning in Torrance, south of Los Angeles, with the Los Angeles Times reporting shots had been fired at the scene.

It culminated with heavily-armed officers, supported by armoured vehicles, swarming the white panel van, smashing the passenger side window with their weapons raised.

AFP photographs from the scene taken after he operation show the body of a man in the driver's seat.

The Times, citing law enforcement sources, said the man had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Photos released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department of their key suspect showed an Asian man wearing a beanie hat and glasses.

Gun violence

Monterey Park, only a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, is home to around 60,000 people, the majority of them Asian or Asian American.

Gun violence is a huge problem in the United States, which last year saw 647 mass shootings, with at least four people shot or killed by a shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

In addition to the California shooting, 12 more people were injured in a shooting at a nightclub overnight in Louisiana, local media reported.

More than 44,000 people died from gunshot wounds in 2022 across the United States, more than half of which were suicides.

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