The Monterey Park mass shooter was once a regular at the dance hall where he fatally shot 11 people, his ex-wife and the city's mayor say

• Police said Huu Can Tran, a 72-year-old Asian man, was the suspect in the Monterey Park shooting.
• He killed 11 and wounded 9 more at a Lunar New Year celebration before attempting another attack, police said.

The Monterey Park mass shooting suspect accused of killing 11 and leaving 9 more wounded at a dance club in the California city was once a regular where carnage unfolded, according to the man's ex-wife and a local mayor.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department identified the suspect in Saturday's massacre at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio as a 72-year-old Asian man named Huu Can Tran.

Sheriff Robert Luna said during a Sunday evening press conference that the elderly man was behind the Lunar New Year shooting at the dance studio where community members were gathered to celebrate the festival.

Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo told Insider on Monday that investigators believe that the suspect had visited the Star Ballroom Dance Studio where the bloodshed occurred in the past.

"I believe that was reported in our briefings about his history and his connection to the dance hall," Lo said.

The suspect's ex-wife, who was not identified, told CNN that the pair met two decades ago at the Star Ballroom and that he offered her free dance lessons.

They married soon after, the ex-wife told the news outlet.

The suspect previously frequented the dance studio as a patron and gave informal lessons there, his ex-wife and a longtime acquaintance told CNN.

Though the woman said her ex-husband was never violent to her, she told CNN he was frequently quick to anger — for example, blaming her for missing dance steps and saying she made him look bad.

The suspect, an immigrant from China, filed for divorce in late 2005, according to CNN.

A friend of the suspect who was close to him in the late 2000s and early 2010s told CNN that the accused gunman would go to the dance studio from his home in the city of San Gabriel "almost every night."

The pal told the news outlet that the suspect had complained that dance instructors at the hall were not fond of him and said "evil things about him." The suspect, the unidentified friend said, was "hostile to a lot of people there."

Authorities are still searching for a motive

The gunman opened fire on Saturday evening in the Monterey Park dance studio before fleeing to a second location in the nearby city of Alhambra, where police say he attempted a second attack at another dance studio. The suspect was disarmed by a bystander and escaped on foot, leading police on an overnight search.

A gun violence expert told Insider that the shooter was one of the oldest in US history, and that data shows men between the ages of 18-25 carrying out the majority of mass shootings.

According to police, the 10 people killed in the shooting were five men and five women, each estimated to be older than 50. On Monday, an 11th victim died in the hospital.

On Sunday afternoon, the white van the suspect used to escape the crime scene was spotted in the beach city of Torrance, where police officers attempted to take the suspect into custody. Luna told reporters the man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before he could be apprehended.

Inside the vehicle, law enforcement recovered a "magazine-fed semi-automatic assault pistol with an extended, large-capacity magazine," along with other, unspecified evidence linking the man to the attacks.

"I believe the weapon that was recovered at the Alhambra location is not legal to have here in the state of California," Luna told reporters. Luna said the suspect had multiple firearms but did not specify how many.

The suspect's criminal and mental health history is still being investigated to identify a possible motive for the killings.

Luna told reporters during a Monday press conference that investigators are still searching for a motive for the shooting.

"We want to know as much as you," Luna said.

Police said the suspect had a limited criminal history

In a Monday press conference, Sheriff Luna said the suspect was arrested in 1990 for unlawful possession of a firearm.

Officers executed a search warrant at the suspect's house following the shooting and recovered a .309 caliber rifle, numerous electronic devices, and items that suggest the suspect was "manufacturing homemade firearm suppressors," as well as hundreds of rounds of loose ammunition, authorities said.

Luna said officials believe there were some modifications made to the semi-automatic weapon recovered at the Alhambra dance hall where a bystander disarmed the suspect.

Meanwhile, the suspect is among the oldest of those accused of committing mass shootings in US history, according to the nonprofit think tank, The Violence Project.

According to The Violence Project, mass shooting data from 1966 to 2020, shows that 138 out of 174 perpetrators were under the age of 45.