Families Mourn Victims as Police Seek Gunman

Investigators continued searching Friday for a gunman who shot and killed four people earlier this week in an El Monte nightclub.

“We have some workable information, but have not identified the killer,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Peavy.

The shooting broke out early Thursday at the International Club, a billiard club and reported hangout for Asian gang members, according to authorities.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office on Friday identified the dead as Minh Diu Tran, 28, of West Covina; Robert Anthony Norman, 20, of Garden Grove; Lan Thi Dang, 23, of Long Beach, and Hao The Tang, 22, of South El Monte.

Tang was celebrating his 22nd birthday.

Tran had apparently argued with a man who returned moments later with a gun. The gunman shot him in the head, then fired at five others sitting at the table. Two people, including Dang’s younger sister, survived by diving to the floor, police said.

Several surveillance cameras were operating in the bar, but “the videotape has not provided anything,” Peavy said. “It doesn’t indicate anything from that part of the bar.”

Friends and family of the victims said they were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I think the guy was just trying to kill everyone in the booth because they were witnesses,” said a friend of Dang, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said Dang, her sister and her boyfriend often went to the International Club. They knew Norman, a disc jockey in the local nightclub scene.

Dang “was just a great person,” he said. “She was such a happy girl. She loved to joke and play-fight and just have a good time. She didn’t deserve this.”

The friend said Dang’s boyfriend was secluded in the bedroom of his apartment Friday, grieving. He was in an adjacent room at the club when the shooting started.

“He heard the gunshots and ran out,” he said. “He thought she was hiding. Then he saw her.”

Dang’s relatives said she went out that night to celebrate a friend’s birthday, suggesting she also knew Tang.

The family said she was not involved with gangs. Her older sister, Jenny, said the dead woman loved children and wanted to be a teacher. Dang had studied education at Long Beach City College but recently dropped out to work.

“She was really friendly,” Jenny Dang said. “She was always there for her friends.”

At the International Club on Friday, candles burned next to four plates of fruit and wafers, offerings for the deceased.

Club co-owner John Bui said he had tried to separate the gunman and Tran moments before the killings. When the scuffle broke up, Bui sat down with Tran at the booth to figure out why the two were so angry.

Then the man returned with a gun.

“Boom! I heard the first shot right behind my head,” he said. “The gunman leaned over behind me and shot the guy right in the head.”

He said he tried to wrestle the gun away, but was pushed to the ground. He said he did not know why the gunman did not shoot him.

Sheriff’s detectives say the gunman was described by witnesses as a muscular Asian man, about 5-feet-10 and 190 pounds.

Times special correspondent Monte Morin contributed to this story.