Gunman shoots 12 inside California bar
POLICE OFFICER AMONG DEAD
TWELVE people including a sheriff ’s sergeant were killed in a mass shooting inside a crowded southern California bar yesterday by a gunman who is then believed to have taken his own life.
The killer was identified as Ian David Long, a 28-year-old former US Marine with mental health issues, with investigators trying to find the motive for the attack at a venue hosting a country music evening for students.
The hooded killer used a smoke bomb and a handgun, sending hundreds of people fleeing in terror
Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said his department had several previous contacts with Long, including a call to his home in April, when deputies found him angry and acting irrationally.
The sheriff said a mental health crisis team was called at the time and concluded Long did not need to be taken into custody.
Patrons at the bar screamed in fear, shouted “Get down!” and used bar stools to smash secondfloor windows and jump to safety as gunfire erupted at the Borderline Bar & Grill, a Thousand Oaks venue popular with students from nearby California Lutheran University.
The dead included 11 people inside the bar and a sheriff ’s sergeant who was the first officer inside the door, the sheriff said.
“It’s a horrific scene in there,” Mr Dean said in a press conference.