California dance club mass shooter Huu Can Tran went to his local police station earlier this month to make several allegations against his family – including that they tried to poison him decades ago.
“Tran visited the Hemet Police Department lobby on January 7 and 9, 2023, alleging past fraud, theft, and poisoning allegations involving his family in the Los Angeles area 10 to 20 years ago,” police said in a statement cited by CNN.
“Tran stated he would return to the station with documentation regarding his allegations but never returned,” it added.
The Hemet department deferred to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for further inquiries, saying this is a “highly sensitive, ongoing investigation.”
LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said his agency was looking into whether Tran’s allegations contributed to the “madness” that unfolded Saturday, when he fired at least 42 times, killing 11 people at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Tran was armed with a semiautomatic Mac-10 assault weapon when he stormed into the dance hall and unleashed the attack during the Lunar New Year celebration.
Authorities have not released a possible motive for the massacre, though a police source previously told LA Magazine that Tran was hunting for his wife in a possible jealous fit of rage.
Police have recovered a .308-caliber rifle, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a variety of electronic equipment from Tran’s trailer home in Hemet, where they also found evidence that he was apparently making “firearm suppressors.”
Tran shot and killed himself inside his van as officers in Torrance, California, approached the white cargo vehicle, in which they recovered a Norinco 7.62 X 25mm handgun.
The 72-year-old gunman is the oldest person to carry out such an attack in the US, according to research by Violence Project cited by the Los Angeles Times.
The elderly are usually the victims, not the perpetrators, Jaclyn Schildkraut, interim executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium, told the newspaper.
The average age of mass shooters is 33, making Tran more than twice as old as the vast majority of the attackers, according to the two organizations, which collect data dating back to 1966.