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Man recalls battle to seize California shooter Huu Can Tran’s gun at Alhambra dance studio
- Brandon Tsay struggled for 90 seconds at his family-run ballroom before he was able to disarm Tran, who had killed 10 people minutes earlier at another dance hall in Monterey Park
- ‘From his body language, his facial expression, his eyes, he was looking for people,’ the 26-year-old says
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The young coder credited with disarming the 72-year-old suspect in a mass shooting during Lunar New Year celebrations in California has described his “primal” battle with the gunman.
The man, identified by The New York Times as 26-year-old Brandon Tsay, was in the office of the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra on Saturday night watching dancers when he looked up to see the suspect pointing a gun at him.
“My heart sank, I knew I was going to die,” he told the newspaper.
“That moment, it was primal instinct,” he said. “Something happened there. I don’t know what came over me.”
He lunged at the man and grabbed the barrel of the gun, beginning the fight of his life.
Tsay, whose grandparents founded the ballroom, did not know that the suspect, identified by police as Huu Can Tran, was believed to have killed 10 people and wounded 10 others just minutes earlier at another dance hall in nearby Monterey Park.
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