307 MASS SHOOTINGS IN 311 DAYS
WILL IT EVER END?
12 more innocent Americans are tossed onto the grim pile of casualties after a maniac opens fire with an illegally modified handgun in a California bar. That makes ...
The college kids and country music fans were giddily linedancing one minute — and running for their lives through flying bullets the next.
An unhinged ex-Marine, wielding a Glock .45 pistol modified for maximum carnage, gunned down a hero cop and 11 innocent revelers inside a California countryand-Western bar before turning the gun on himself, authorities said.
Shooter Ian David Long, swathed in black from head to toe, tossed three smoke bombs inside before spraying the Borderline Bar & Grill with gunfire. Survivors described a scene of incredible chaos and courage, with some victims giving their lives to save others as the crazed Afghanistan war veteran blasted away at the crowd in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
“I dropped when I heard the gunshots,” said a shaken Sarah DeSon, a California Lutheran University student. “I remember seeing the shooter with the gun drawn … at one point I turned around, there was a smoke bomb. Sparks going off and smoke. Someone had to plan to kill a lot of people … I’m shocked, it’s terrible, but I’m so lucky.”
The panicked crowd smashed windows to flee, or ducked behind the pool table and barroom furniture for protection. Some hid in bathroom stalls until the shooting stopped, and one witness said Long reloaded his weapon at least once during the shooting spree.
“It’s a horrific scene in there,” said Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean. “There is blood everywhere, and the suspect is part of that.”
The popular nightspot was packed with patrons as young as 18 for a special “College Country” night promotion with line-dancing lessons. At least two students and their friends turned out to celebrate their 21st birthdays at the club, and three of the identified victims were between the ages of 18 and 23.
Survivors, including Teylor Whittler, said the rattling gunshots were punctuated by screams as the crowd grasped what was happening.
“Everyone just yelled, ‘Run, he’s coming!’ ” Whittler, who was celebrating a friend’s birthday, recounted to “Good Morning America.”
“There were at least 50 people that all tried getting up at once and running out the back door. I ended up getting caught in the ground and stumbled over by multiple people,” she continued. “I got hit in the head by a stool that was being picked up to throw through a window, until some guy came up behind me and grabbed me and said, ‘Get up, we have to go!’ ”
Several men served as human shields for Whittler and her friends, “ready to take a bullet for every single one of us,” she said. Incredibly, some of the survivors also attended the Las Vegas concert when a lone shooter killed 58 country music fans last year.
Authorities provided no motive for the latest spasm in America’s endless epidemic of mass shootings, with this one coming less than two weeks after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre and nine months after 17 students and teachers were killed in Parkland, Fla. The killer used extended magazines banned in California to squeeze off extra bullets, officials said.
Long emerged as a clearly damaged person once out of the service and back home, likely battling post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the Marines from 2008-13. Neighbors described him as a volatile figure who fought tooth and nail with his mother, with at least one spat punctuated by a gunshot. When a neighbor called the cops in the spring, Long barricaded himself inside the house and police closed their street down.
His time as a Marine in Afghanistan did little to calm Long, whose lifeless body was found inside an office at the bar.
“When he came back, he was a lot worse,” said neighbor Donald McCloud, 79. “It got turbo-charged … The duration of the arguments was a lot longer.”
Long’s first victim was Ventura County Sheriff ’s Department Sgt. Ron Helus, a 29-year veteran of the department who responded to the bar along with a member of the California Highway patrol. The slain officer — set to retire in 2019 after 30 years — was the first one though the front door, and died after a shootout with the suspect.
“As I told his wife, he died a hero,” Dean said, choking back tears. “He went in to save lives, to save other people.”
Long, behind black sunglasses and wrapped in a black hoodie, then gunned down a bouncer and a second security guard before marching inside and taking aim at the dance floor and the guests — including students from three nearby colleges: California Lutheran University, Moorpark College and Pepperdine University.
Moorpark freshman Cole Knapp said he thought someone was fooling around with firecrackers until he spotted the black-clad invader holding a pistol. After helping people out through a nearby exit, he spotted a highway patrol officer in the middle of a traffic stop.
“I screamed to him, ‘There’s a shooter in there!’ ” he recounted. “He was kind of in disbelief, then saw that I was serious.”
Knapp said a few of the kids who came with him remained among those unaccounted for when the shooting stopped. As many as 15 people were injured as they scrambled out windows or dove for cover.
Those who didn’t make it out included Cody Coffman, 22, killed as he walked toward the bar to buy a round of drinks for his friends.
“This is a heart I will never get back,” said his shattered father Jason.
Investigators were poring over the shooter’s car and his home in a hunt for the elusive motive behind the mass murders, but had yet to find anything.
“Maybe there was a motive for this particular night, but we have no information leading to that at all,” said Dean.
Authorities declined to say what items were recovered or whether security video of the carnage was recovered. The city of Thousand Oaks was recently ranked the third-safest city in the United States, according to data analysis by the website Niche.
President Trump, who suggested armed synagogue guards after the Pittsburgh slaughter, focused Thursday on the response by law enforcement.
“Great bravery shown by police. California Highway Patrol was on the scene within 3 minutes, with first officer to enter shot multiple times,” tweeted Trump. “God bless all of the victims and families of the victims. Thank you to law enforcement.”