It’s been three weekends since a gunman left 11 people dead inside a Monterey Park dance hall on Jan. 21.

And still no clear picture of what motivated Huu Can Tran, 72, of Hemet, to walk into Star Ballroom Dance Studio in a rampage that could have left even more dead and injured at a neighboring dance studio in Alhambra.

As of Friday, Sheriff’s Homicide Lt. Patty Thomas said there is no update on the investigation and Tran’s motive remained unknown.

But outside of the ongoing investigation, this past week was one of reflection on the dead, even as those who emerged as leaders and heroes were celebrated and echoes of the tragedy found their way all the way to the nation’s Capitol.

All of this came as a funding support mechanism ticked into motion, focused on survivors and victims’ families.

The city of Monterey Park has partnered with the California Community Foundation to establish the Monterey Park Victim & Family Support Fund to provide assistance to the victims, their families and the community in healing.

To make a secure, tax-deductible donation online, visit https://www.calfund.org/monterey-park-victim-family-support-fund/. You can also send checks payable to the California Community Foundation, noting that the donation is earmarked for the Monterey Park Victim & Family Support Fund. Checks should be mailed to:

California Community Foundation 717 West Temple Street Los Angeles, CA 90012

Last week started off with the continuation of the sad timeline of burials and memorials for those killed. Just two days after Valentino Alvero was laid to rest, Ming Wei Ma — the 72-year-old, beloved dance instructor known not just for devotion to dancing but as a light in the community, and for a last act of self sacrifice — was memorialized on Feb 5. Such remembrances continued in a community that has valued privacy in such ceremonies, in several cases asking that the media stay away.

Echoes of the shooting, meanwhile, grew louder in the public consciousness and made their way to Congress and the White House.

His voice raised and resolute, President Joe Biden exhorted Congress to “ban assault weapons now; ban them now — once and for all” during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, speaking to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives.

It was a pivotal moment in a speech that navigated from the need for consensus in Congress to the economy and the war in Ukraine. But it was the reform of gun laws in which lawmakers sought to pivot off of the Monterey Park tragedy, calling for a ban on the kind of high-capacity guns that Tran and many others have used in their rampages.

Brandon Tsay, 26, the San Marino resident and co-operator of Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, who disarmed Tran in his apparent second attempt at a massacre, was stoic during the speech, as he stood in first lady Jill Biden’s box receiving the accolades of a grateful president and nation for his heroism.

Tsay had been invited by Biden, but he certainly wasn’t the only one from the area to be in attendance at the speech this week. Former Monterey Park Henry Lo, invited as a guest of Sen. Alex Padilla, was there. Lo emerged as a leading voice in consoling the shaken community, and was also a voice on the larger effort to halt such violence.

“For Asian Americans, we have a rate of social problems (such as) a lack of accessibility to culturally competency, mental health services poor labor conditions — which all contribute to violence in our community,” said Lo, who as mayor of Monterey Park facilitated emergency actions as well as restorative initiatives in the days that followed the shooting. “Add to that the rise anti-Asian hate and you can see the conditions, which have, I think, really exposed the fragility of our community.”

As the week came to an end, Star Ballroom Dance Studio owner Maria Liang had yet to decide whether the beloved studio would go on, as people still continued to come to add to the memorial outside its walls.

Over in Alhambra, Lai Lai dance studio was welcoming back Tsay, while ramping up its weekend social dance night, with hopes the dance floor itself will provide some healing.

In the coming week, the Monterey Park City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday for the second time since the shooting, with an agenda that includes recognition for Tsay and for first responders who worked the ballroom tragedy.