The first shooting unfolded just before 10 a.m. at K Towne Plaza, a shopping center in Carrollton’s Koreatown — a dense corridor of Korean restaurants, markets, and churches that has grown over the past 20 years into one of the largest Korean American hubs in North Texas. Police arrived to find four adults with gunshot wounds. While officers were securing the scene, a second shooting was reported at an apartment complex roughly four miles away, where a man was found dead inside a residence.
Carrollton Police Chief Roberto Arredondo said detectives quickly linked the two shootings to a single gunman, 69-year-old Seung Ho Han, who was taken into custody after a short foot chase at a nearby grocery store. Han acknowledged he was the shooter and told investigators he was angry at the victims because of a financial dispute tied to their business dealings.
“It was a known business relationship. We’re still trying to work to identify what caused his actions,” Arredondo said at a news conference. He stressed that the attack was not random and that Han knew both people who were killed.
The three injured victims were hospitalized in stable condition, the chief added. Names of the dead and wounded were not released immediately, and investigators continued to examine the financial and personal history between Han and his targets.
The shootings sent officers with rifles through the K Towne Plaza parking lot as FBI agents collected evidence. The federal involvement was in a supporting role, local police said.
The violence punctured the peace of a community that many residents view as an economic and cultural success story. More than 4,000 residents of Carrollton — a city of about 130,000, 20 miles north of Dallas — are of Korean descent, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The area is anchored by Korean chains like H Mart and dotted with dozens of small businesses that have made it a destination for the broader Dallas-Fort Worth region.
“We’re shocked,” said John Jun, a figure active in the Korean American community. “We’re not immune to something like this happening, but we are very generally a peaceful community that works hard.”
Carrollton’s Koreatown is also home to multiple Korean churches, from Baptist to Presbyterian congregations, which now face the grim task of comforting members after the deadliest act of violence many can recall.
Associated Press reporters Terry Tang, Rebecca Boone, Claudia Lauer and Ed White contributed to this report.