Gulf News

Ex-US Marine kills 12 in bar rampage

Suspect threw smoke bombs and rained bullets on crowd of more than 100 people in California

- LOS ANGELES

Agunman who killed 12 people at a Thousand Oaks, California, bar was a former US Marine who might have been suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), the Ventura County Sheriff said.

Ian David Long, 28, lived in Newbury Park, not far from the club where he threw smoke bombs and rained bullets on a crowd of more than a hundred people.

Sheriff Geoff Dean said his department had several interactio­ns with Long, including a call to his home in April for a complaint of disturbing the peace. Deputies at the time said he was irate and acting irrational­ly, Dean said. They brought in mental health profession­als to evaluate him, who concluded he did not need to be taken into custody.

Long was also the victim of a battery at a local bar in 2015, the sheriff said. Long was dressed in black when he burst into the Borderline Bar & Grill, a country music-themed venue popular with college students, around 11:20pm. The shooter was armed with a Glock 21.45-calibre handgun, Dean said. A source said he also had a “smoke device.”

Gunman was dressed in black when he burst into the country music-themed venue popular with college students

Josh Coaly got an ominous text just before midnight from the Borderline Bar & Grill: There had been a mass shooting. The 27-year-old immediatel­y started scrambling for the names of people he knew who might be in the bar, which he described as having pool tables and an open dance floor with line dancing and two-stepping.

Coaly has been to the bar many times with his friends. The friend he got the text from was also in Las Vegas last year when Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. Coaly said he talked to his friend, who told him he was with his father, was fine and was trying to help other friends.

“I just came to see if there’s anything I can do,” Coaly said as he stood in the sidewalk, watching the scene unfold in the darkness.

Witnesses said there were hundreds of people in the bar at the time of the shooting. Teylor Whittler, 19, said she was there to help celebrate a friend’s 21st birthday. She said she initially heard what sounded like firecracke­rs. Then she saw a man with a gun. She said her group included 11 people. “We haven’t found half of them yet,” she said.

Her father kept Whittler company. He said he got a call at about 11:20pm from an unknown number. It was his daughter. “There’s been a shooting, I’m OK. I’m hiding in the hills,” she said.

“I got dressed and was up here in about 10 minutes,” Chris Valenzano said. “I think there’s more anger than anything else. The fact that it happened so close to home, that definitely hurt.”

Officers took his daughter’s shirt when she walked out because it was covered in blood, he said. “She has no idea whose,” Valenzano said.

Gunshots turn louder

Like many people, Matthew Wennerstro­m, 20, had become a regular at the bar. On Wednesday, he got to the Borderline Bar & Grill at about 10:45pm, paid the $7 entrance fee and got an X marked on both hands to show he was still under 21.

It was college night and there were a lot of friends and familiar faces around. Wennerstro­m had been there less than an hour when he heard the gunshots over the loud music.

“Those shots, you don’t mistake that for anything,” he said.

He was down the steps from the entrance and had a direct line of sight to the shooter, who he saw with a handgun. The shooter, a tall man, was about 35 feet across the room, Wennerstro­m said.

The gunman opened fire on those standing at the front desk, he said.

Wennerstro­m pulled as many people as he could under a pool table. Some people, men and women, helped others escape.

After hearing about a dozen gunshots, Wennerstro­m and others made a break for the windows.

Once he got out and to a nearby gas station, he made sure people were sheltering behind a wall. He saw men struggling to carry a man who was bleeding.

“We just ran over there and stepped in,” he said.

When he turns 21, Wennerstro­m said, he’s getting a permit to carry a concealed weapon. “So that I can protect my friends and my family from something like this,” he said as he stood on Moorpark Road, his breath fogging the air in the chilly morning darkness. “Because I don’t think this will be the last.”

 ?? AP ?? People comfort each other near the scene of the attack, in Thousand Oaks, California yesterday.
AP People comfort each other near the scene of the attack, in Thousand Oaks, California yesterday.
 ?? AP ?? A victim is treated near the scene of a shooting Wednesday evening in Thousand Oaks, California. A hooded gunman opened fire on a crowd at a country dance bar holding a weekly ‘college night’ in Southern California, killing multiple people.
AP A victim is treated near the scene of a shooting Wednesday evening in Thousand Oaks, California. A hooded gunman opened fire on a crowd at a country dance bar holding a weekly ‘college night’ in Southern California, killing multiple people.
 ?? AP/©Gulf News ?? Source: maps4news
AP/©Gulf News Source: maps4news
 ?? AP ?? People sit down on the road after the shooting incident. Witnesses said there were hundreds of people in the bar at the time of the shooting.
AP People sit down on the road after the shooting incident. Witnesses said there were hundreds of people in the bar at the time of the shooting.

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