Who is State of the Union guest Brandon Tsay, hero of the Monterey Park shooting?

Monterey Park hero one of several high-profile invitees to president’s speech

When Joe Biden delivers his second State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday evening, he will do so before an audience of legislators who have each brought along a special guest from their constituencies.

Among the most prominent this time will be RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, grieving parents of the slain Tyre Nichols, the recovering Paul Pelosi and the Irish rock star and campaigner Bono.

Undoubtedly one of the most astonishing is Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old hero of the Monterey Park mass shooting.

Mr Tsay was invited to the State of the Union by California Democratic congresswoman Judy Chu after he heroically intervened to disarm the gunman who carried out the mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park near Los Angeles on 21 January, saving an untold number of lives.

“My first thought was I was gonna die here. This was it,” he told ABC’s Good Morning America recently, recounting the moment he realised what was happening before taking advantage of the gunman’s hesitation to wrestle the weapon away from him.

The killer subsequently fled the scene before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

According to CNN, just an hour after Ms Chu extended Mr Tsay’s invitation to Washington, he was called by Mr Biden himself to make the same offer, the president having already been in touch to thank him for his bravery.

“I wanted to call to see how you’re doing and thank you for taking such incredible action in the face of danger,” Mr Biden had told him.

“I don’t think you understand just how much you’ve done for so many people who are never going to even know you. But I want them to know more about you.

“You have my respect. You are America, pal.”

Mr Tsay – who works in the box office of the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, owned by his family – has since been awarded a medal of courage by the city police department.

He has also set up the Brandon Tsay Hero Fund to channel the donations he has received from grateful members of the public to support the Asian American Pacific Islander community.

“I don’t want to casually use this money for myself,” he told NPR's Morning Edition. “Money that comes from community should be used for the community.”

Brandon Tsay (AP)

He added that he has not yet determined precisely how the donations will be spent but said he hoped to help others heal: “They’re vulnerable. They’re scared, they’re fragile. I want to have efforts in supporting people that go through a traumatic experience.

“I just want people to know that they have people looking out for them.”

Monterey’s mayor, Henry Lo, has also been invited to the State of the Union by California senator Alex Padilla in recognition of his handling of the same incident.

Striking a similar note, congressmen Maxwell Frost of Florida and Greg Casar of Texas have invited the parents of victims of the Parkland and Uvalde school shooting massacres.

Congressmen Joe Neguse and Jason Crow, both of Colorado, will likewise be welcoming guests with ties to recent shootings.

Mr Neguse will bring the wife of a man killed in a 2021 mass killing in Boulder while Mr Crow will be in attendance with Army veteran Richard M Fierro, who similarly disarmed a shooter in Colorado Springs in 2022.

Other heroes in attendance will be Philadelphia bus driver Chris DeShields, who stopped an attempted carjacking by using his 40-foot public vehicle to box in and scare off the perpetrator, and Darrell Woodie, a Florida “Good Samaritan” who saved the life of Republican congressman Greg Staube by calling 911 when he fell off the roof of his Sarasota home while cutting tree limbs on 18 January.

You can find an extensive list of the official guests here.

The Independent will be covering President Biden’s speech in detail via our liveblog and IndyTV and will bring you all the latest updates as the evening progresses.