Brandon Tsay, 26, had no clue Saturday night, Jan. 21, the gun-wielding man 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, 72 entered his family’s Lai Lai Ballroom, had just gunned down 10 innocent victims, now 11, at Monterey Park, Calif.’s Star Dance Studio. Tsay said, without knowledge of the earlier massacre, acted on instinct lunging at the shooter, wrestling him to the floor before taking away his semi-automatic firearm. Tsay said he used his elbows to separate the gun from the shooter. “He started prepping the weapon and something came over me,” Tsay said. “I realized I need to get the weapons away from him. I needed to take this weapon, disarm him or else everybody would have died,” Tsay said, not realizing how many lives he would save. Tsay said Huu was striking him against the back of the head before he surrendered the weapon. Tsay acted on instinct and managed to get control of the gun.
Few individuals in Tsay’s situation would have displayed the nerve and guts to attack a gun-wielding lunatic, fully prepared to commit mass murder like he did minutes before at Monterey Park.Star Dance Studio. Once he got Tran’s gun, Tsay told him to get out of his family business. “Get the hell out of here! I’ll shoot. Get way! Go!,” Tsay told the gunman, watching him eventually saunter out of the Lai Lai Ballroom without incident. “I thought he would run away, but he was just standing there contemplating whether to fight or to run,” Tsay recalled. Tran looked like he was dazed, not in his right state of mind. “I really thought I would have to shoot him and he came after me. This is when he turned around and walked out the door, and jogged back to his van. I immediately called police with the gun in my hand,” Tsay said, showing remarkable poise for someone whose life was threatened.
For the rest of humanity who watches from afar, Brandon Tsay should be studied for how to show “grace under pressure,” confronted with nearly certain death at the hands of a mass shooter, Tsay kept his cool and defended himself. What it shows is gun-toatting killers do not have the ferocity believed because of their heinous crimes. But if confronted directly, they don’t put up the kind of fight expected. Tsay took his lumps struggling with Tran to the ground before taking away his gun. But once Tran’s gun was taken, the killer lost his bravado, the same bravado that had him gun down 11 innocent people only 20-minutes before at Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park. When Tran stood there not concerned about getting shot himself, it showed the kind of trance-like state serial killers get into while committing mayhem. Mass shooter have much in common when it comes to their peculiar personalities.
No one yet has shed too much light on mass shooter Huu Can Tran but no doubt his neighbors or friends will identify him as a quiet, reclusive man, without any police record of violence or crime. Tran was tracked down in his white van some thirty miles south in the City of Torrance. Police said when they approached the van in a strip mall parking lot, they heard a single gun shot. When they opened the van, they found Tran slumped over with a single gunshot wound to his head. Officers said Tran’s van had stolen license plates, suggesting at the very least, that he was trying to cover his tracks but ran out of running room. When Tsay confronted Tran only 20 minutes after his Monterey Park massacre, he had no idea who he was dealing with. Tsay knew that if he didn’t charge the shooter, wrestle him to the ground and take away his weapon, Tran would have continued his rampage.
Surveillance video showed Tsay wrestling Tran to the ground, taking away his weapon. Tsay admitted to having bruising all over his body after the incident, but, more importantly, shaking all night after learning that Tran was the Monterey Park mass shooter. “I was shaking all night. I could believe what happened,” Tsay said. “A lot of people have been telling me how much courage I had to confront as situation like this. But you know what courage is? Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the ability to have adversity to fear when fearful events happen such this,” Tsay said. Tsay let his survival instincts take over when he was confronted with a gun-wielding lunatic, knowing he had to act to protect himself. No one can say what it took Tsay to step up and deal with the present danger. His advice is to get over the fear to allow yourself to remain cool under pressure.
If you could bottle up what Tsay displayed Saturday night, Jan. 21, only minutes after the massacre in Monterey Part, the U.S. government would pay a king’s ransom for the insight. While most people panic with fear, Tsay showed the definition of courage, the kind of grace under pressure from a life-threatening event. “In crises like this, the people need courage, especially the victims, their friends, their families,” Tsay said. “My heart goes out to everybody involved, especially the people in Star Dance Studio and Monterey Park. I hope they can find courage and strength to persevere,” Tsay sad, giving remarkable insights for a 26-year-old. Tsay showed that ordinary folks can rise to the occasion if they can remain cool and do what’s necessary when confronted with adversity. Tsay said the only real obstacle to taking charge is “adversity to fear,” doing what’s necessary in the moment.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma
