- A heroic man disarmed the California dance hall mass shooter over the weekend.
- Brandon Tsay told "Good Morning America" he took the gun from the man and pointed it at him.
The heroic man who disarmed the California dance club mass shooter over the weekend said he ripped the firearm from the gunman, pointed it at him, and shouted, "Get the hell out of here!"
Brandon Tsay, 26, told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday morning that he was in the lobby of his family's Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, California, on Saturday night when the gunman entered shortly after police said he killed 10 people at a Monterey Park ballroom dance club during Lunar New Year celebrations. An 11th victim died in the hospital Monday.
Tsay told "GMA" that he had heard the sound of the front door closing "instantly followed by the sound of a metal object clinking together."
"That's when I turned around and saw there was an Asian man holding a gun," Tsay said. "My first thought was 'I was gonna die here. This is it.'"
Tsay told "GMA" that the gunman — identified by police as a 72-year-old man — did not seem like he was "here to rob us."
"When he was looking around the room, it seemed like he was looking for targets, people to harm," Tsay said, adding that the man then started "prepping his weapon."
That's when Tsay said, "something came over me."
"I realized I needed to get the weapon away from him. I needed to take this weapon, disarm him, or else everyone would have died," Tsay told "GMA." "When I got the courage, I lunged at him with both my hands, grabbed the weapon, and we had a struggle."
Surveillance images published by "GMA" show Tsay and the man wrestling over the weapon in the dance studio lobby.
"He was hitting me across the face, bashing the back of my head," Tsay said. "I was trying to use my elbows to separate the gun away from him — creating some distance."
Finally, Tsay said he managed to "pull the gun away" from the attacker, "shove him aside, create some distance, point the gun at him, intimidate him, shout at him and say: 'Get the hell out of here! I'll shoot! Get away! Go!'"
Tsay said that the man did not immediately flee and "was just standing there contemplating whether to fight or to run away."
"I really thought I would have to shoot him if he came at me," Tsay said, adding that the man then walked out the door and back to his van.
Tsay told "GMA" that he was left "shaken" by the ordeal and that he immediately called the police "with the gun still in my hand."
Authorities found the gunman dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Sunday.
Police said during a press conference that bystanders disarmed the shooter at the second ballroom before he fled, but the surveillance images published by "Good Morning America" only show Tsay.
"It was just my son. He could have died," Tsay's father, Tom Tsay, told The New York Times. "He's lucky. Someone was watching over him."