Former Marine kills 12, one a sheriff ’s deputy, in Southern California

THOUSAND OAKS, Ventura County — Terrified patrons hurled barstools through windows to escape or threw their bodies protectively on top of friends as a Marine combat veteran killed 12 people at a country music bar Wednesday night in an attack that added Thousand Oaks to the roster of American cities traumatized by mass shootings.

Dressed all in black with his hood pulled up, the gunman apparently took his own life as scores of police converged on the Borderline Bar & Grill in Southern California.

The motive for the rampage was under investigation.

The killer, Ian David Long, 28, was a former machine gunner and Afghanistan war veteran who was interviewed by police at his home that he shared with his mother last spring after an episode of agitated behavior that authorities were told might be post-traumatic stress disorder.

Opening fire with a handgun with an illegal, extra-capacity magazine, Long shot a security guard outside the bar and then went in and took aim at employees and patrons, authorities said. He also used a smoke bomb, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The dead included a veteran sheriff ’s deputy who rushed in to confront the gunman, as well as a 22-year-old man who planned to join the Army, a freshman at Pepperdine University, and a recent California Lutheran University graduate.

“It’s a horrific scene in there,” Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said in the parking lot. “There’s blood everywhere.”

Several of the survivors said they were also at the outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017 when a gunman in a high-rise hotel killed 58 people.

Many of the hundreds of patrons at the Borderline dived under tables, ran for the exits, broke through windows or hid in the attic and bathrooms, authorities and witnesses said.

“Unfortunately our young people, people at nightclubs, have learned that this may happen, and they think about that,” the sheriff said. “Fortunately it helped save a lot of lives that they fled the scene so rapidly.”

Matt Wennerstrom said he pulled people behind a pool table, and he and friends shielded women with their bodies after hearing the shots. When the gunman paused to reload, Wennerstrom said, he used a barstool to shatter a window and then helped about 30 people escape. He heard another volley of shots after they got out.

“All I wanted to do was get as many people out of there as possible,” he told KABC-TV. “I know where I’m going if I die, so I was not worried.”

Jason Coffman received the news that his son Cody, 22, who was about to join the Army, was dead. Coffman broke down as he told reporters how his last words to his son as he went out that night were not to drink and drive and that he loved him.

“Oh, Cody, I love you, son,” Coffman sobbed.

It was the nation’s deadliest such attack since 17 students and teachers were killed at a Parkland, Fla., high school nine months ago. It also came less than two weeks after a gunman massacred 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

President Trump praised police for their “great bravery” in the attack and ordered flags flown at half-staff in honor of the victims.

Authorities searched Long’s home in Newbury Park, about 5 miles 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 was in the Marines from 2008 to 2013, rose to the rank of corporal and served in Afghanistan in 2010-11 before he was honorably discharged, the military said. Court records show he married in 2009 and was divorced in 2013.

Authorities said he had no criminal record, but in April officers were called to his home, where deputies found him angry and acting irrationally. The sheriff said officers were told he might have PTSD because of his military service. A mental health specialist met with him and didn’t feel he needed to be hospitalized.