KILLER ‘WEIRD LONER’
Ex-Marine murders 12, shoots self in California country bar
The latest American mass killer who delivered death in a California honky tonk was “weird” and “mean”, a former friend said.
Decorated U.S. Marine Ian David Long, 28 — who served three tours of duty in Afghanistan — murdered 12 people during college night at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks Wednesday.
As cops closed in, he turned his .45-calibre Glock 21 on himself and was dead when cops stormed in.
Investigators believe the carnage was caused by a PTSD-fuelled meltdown noting he had an episode of erratic behaviour last spring. A former pal told the New
York Post that the gunman was a “weird loner” obsessed with practising dance moves in his garage.
Blake Winnett told The Post he used to live with Long.
“I think I’ve actually gone there with him one time,” Winnett said of the country music bar that was the scene of the slaughter.
“He was kind of weird. He always locked himself in his room, he was always by himself,” Winnett said.
Saying he didn’t know the killer well, Winnett said Long was a former university student and had been in the marines for five years.
Winnett came to dislike his roommate.
“He didn’t want to help anyone or do anything. He was just lazy I guess,” Winnett said, adding he wouldn’t even take out the trash.
Winnett added: “He wasn’t violent but he was mean.”
His weird quirks turned violent in the suburbs of Los Angeles.
Screaming in fear, patrons rushed for the exits, ducked under tables and hurled barstools to smash second-floor windows and jump to safety as gunfire erupted at the bar, a hangout popular with students from nearby California Lutheran University.
“I dropped to the floor,” Sarah Rose DeSon told ABC’s
Good Morning America .“A friend yelled, ‘Everybody down!’ We were hiding behind tables trying to keep ourselves covered.”
The dead included 11 people inside the bar and a veteran sheriff’s sergeant who was the first officer inside the door, Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said.
It was the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. since 17 students and teachers were killed at a Parkland, Florida, high school nine months ago.
The massacre comes on the heels of a gunman murdering 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Long had lived with his mother who sources said was “terrified” he was going to do harm one day.
“She lived in fear in case something happened,” neighbour Richard Berge told the
Daily Mail. “He wouldn’t get help. She was beside herself and didn’t know what to do.”
Long’s Glock had been designed to hold 10 rounds plus one in the chamber, according to the sheriff.
But it had an extended magazine — one capable of holding more ammunition — that is illegal in California.
Authorities began a search of Long’s home in Newbury Park, about 8 km from the Borderline bar, for clues to what set him off.
“There’s no indication that he targeted the employees. We haven’t found any correlation,” the sheriff said. “Maybe there was a motive for this particular night, but we have no information leading to that at all.”
Long first shot a security guard standing outside, then went in and opened fire on staff members and patrons, the sheriff said.
Sheriff ’s Sgt. Ron Helus and a passing highway patrolman arrived at the Borderline around 11:20 p.m. in response to several 911 calls, heard gunfire and went inside, the sheriff said.
Helus was immediately hit with multiple gunshots and died later in hospital.