FBI hopes to learn why ex-Marine killed 12 in California
THOUSAND OAKS (California):, The Federal Bureau of Investigation is hoping to build a clear profile of a former Umited States Marine combat veteran who killed 12 people in a crowded Los Angeles area bar to discover a motive for the latest shooting massacre in the US.
The gunman, 28-year-old Ian David Long, entered the Borderline Bar and Grill here and opened fire at a little before midnight before he apparently took his own life.
Paul Delacourt, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles office of the FBI, said it was too early to speculate on the shooter’s motives, but that he appeared to have acted alone.
“We will be sure to paint a picture of the state of mind of the subject and do our best to identify a motivation,” Delacourt said, adding that the FBI would investigate any possible “radicalisation” or links to militant groups.
Long opened fire, seemingly at random, inside the barn-style, Western-themed bar, with a .45 caliber Glock handgun equipped with a high-capacity magazine, Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said. The bar was packed with college students.
Long was in the Marine Corps from 2008 to 2013, reaching the rank of corporal and serving as a machine gunner in Afghanistan, and the sheriff said he may have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Obviously, he had something going on in his head that would cause him to do something like this,” Dean said.
Dean said officers in April had gone to Long’s home in nearby Newbury Park, about 6km from the bar, to answer a disturbance call and found him agitated.
Mental health specialists talked with Long and determined that no further action was necessary, the sheriff said.
Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Ron Helus, a 29year veteran, was killed during the shooting.
He and a California Highway Patrol officer were the first to arrive at the bar to confront the gunman.