Dozen dead after ex-marine attacks bar filled with students
● Authorities say motive is under investigation after latest massacre
Using a smoke bomb and a handgun, a hooded former Marine dressed all in black opened fire during college night at a country music bar in southern California, killing 12 people and sending hundreds fleeing in panic before apparently taking his own life, authorities said yesterday.
Officials said the motive for the attack on Wednesday night was under investigation.
The killer was identified as Ian David Long, 28, a veteran who authorities said had an episode of erratic behaviour last spring that was thought to be post-traumatic stress disorder because of his military background.
Patrons at the bar screamed in fear, shouted “get down!” and used bar stools to smash second-floor windows and jump to safety as gunfire erupted at the Borderline Bar & Grill, a hangout popular with students from the nearby California Lutheran University. The dead included 11 people inside the bar and Sheriff ’s Sergeant Ron Helus, who was the first officer to go inside the door, Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said.
“It’s a horrific scene in there,” Sheriff Dean said. “There’s blood everywhere.”
The killer deployed a smoke device and used a .45-calibre handgun, a law enforcement official said.
It was the deadliest mass shooting in the US since 17 students and teachers were killed at a Parkland, Florida, high school nine months ago. It also came less than two weeks after a gunman massacred 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. That, in turn, closely followed the series of pipe bombs mailed to critics of president Donald Trump.
Mr Trump praised police for their “great bravery” in the California attack and said: “God bless all of the victims and families of the victims.”
He ordered flags flown at
half-mast in honour of the victims.
Sheriff 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 because of what authorities said might have been PTSD. The sheriff said a mental health crisis team was called at the time and concluded Long did not need to be taken into custody.
Sheriff Dean said the other prior encounters were a traf-standing
fic accident and an incident in which Long was the victim of an assault at a bar.
As for why he attacked the bar, “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.”
The gunman was tall and wearing all black with a hood and his face partly covered, witnesses told TV stations.
He first shot a security guard outside, then went in and opened fire inside the nightclub, the sheriff said.
“I dropped to the floor,” Sarah Rose Deson told one TV show .“A friend yelled ,‘ everybody down !’ We were hiding behind tables trying to keep ourselves covered.”
Sheriff ’s Sergeant Helus and a passing highway patrolman arrived at the Borderline about 11:20pm in response to several 911 calls, heard gunfire and went inside, Sheriff Dean said.
Mr Helus was immediately hit with multiple gunshots, Sheriff Dean said. The highway patrolman pulled Mr Helus out, then waited as a SWAT team and scores more officers arrived. Mr Helus died at a hospital.
By the time they entered the bar again, the gunfire had stopped, according to the sheriff. They found 12 people dead inside, including the gunman, who was discovered in an office and had apparently shot himself, the sheriff said.
“There’s no doubt that they saved lives by going in there and engaging with the suspect,” said Sheriff Dean.