Brandon Tsay was never one for the spotlight. In fact, he preferred to shine it on others.
Talk to those closest to him and they’ll tell you he was the guy behind the scenes — the deejay curating the music. The one making sure the lighting was just right for the ballroom dancers at his family’s Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio.
And then one night, on a festive Lunar New Year’s eve in a San Gabriel Valley town celebrating its robust Asian American culture, everything changed.
In a story for the ages, now told from local city councils to the White House, and from the halls of Congress to the world, it was the 26-year-old, soft-spoken man who wrested a semi-automatic weapon from an intruder who just minutes earlier had gunned down 11 people at a Monterey Park ballroom dance floor.
The black-and-white security camera images remain etched into the collective memories of that night: There was Tsay, acting on a split-second life-or-death decision, confronting the gunman, who just moments before was pointing the weapon directly at him. Tsay lunged toward him. Arms outstretched. The struggle ensued in the Lai Lai lobby: A gunman intent on more killing. Tsay, who’d never held a gun in his life, determined to stop him.
Tsay would succeed – a life-saving triumph amid an unfolding, epic tragedy.
Overnight, Brandon Tsay was a national hero, the personal guest of the president of the United States at the State of the Union, and a new face of hope in a nation struggling with how to deal with a relentless pattern of mass shootings. He’s been the recipient of countless awards and honors, including a Medal of Courage from the Alhambra Police Department.
“He grew up very fast overnight,” his older sister Brenda Tsay said. “He kind of was like the sheltered child before the incident. Now he’s definitely like a grown man. An adult, like trying to do something for society.”
Life is indeed different. After all, virtually overnight, he went from quietly helping…
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