Hundreds of people attended the Alhambra Lunar New Year Festival on Sunday, watching the performances, enjoying the food and honoring a local hero Brandon Tsay.
Tsay disarmed the Monterey Park gunman during an attempted shooting at a ballroom in Alhambra.
Surveillance video from the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio shows the hero civilian wrestling with the 72-year-old gunman and successfully disarming him, likely saving many lives.
“The situation still feels so surreal to me,” Tsay said.
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Tsay took the stage and spoke about resilience and compassion, and the 11 victims who were killed in the Monterey Park shooting.
“Most of the victims I knew personally. They would always come by the dance studio and I consider them friends. They were some of the most caring people I have ever met and for them to be taken from us it is such an excruciating experience,” Tsay said.
People stood in the rain and waited patiently to hear the 26-year-old speak and take a picture with him.
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“You know that it's raining here guys and people are still here. Why? Because he made a difference in our community,” Tony Chi-Su Gutierrez, an Alhambra resident, said.
“He is such a selfless act of bravery and kindness and I think he is really an inspiration,” Randy Aung, an Alhambra resident, said.
For the Asian community in the San Gabriel Valley, Tsay represents a triumph of good over evil, the light in a dark and trying time.
And many say the festival is also representative of that.
“I'm glad they are still hosting this event to come together and celebrate,” Selena Tran, an Alhambra resident, said.
Showing the world that this community will persevere because they have each other.
“As long as we keep being resilient, we can defeat evil,” Aung said.
