A hooded gunman dressed in black opened fire on a country dance bar popular with college students in Southern California, killing 11 people and a sheriff’s sergeant. The shooter also died in the melee.
Authorities identified the suspected shooter as 28-year-old Ian David Long, a former machine gunner and decorated combat veteran of the U.S. Marines, according to sheriff’s officials. They added that they believe Long fatally shot himself after the massacre. He was found inside an office near the entrance of the venue.
The motive for the shooting is unknown.
#BorderLineShooting suspect served in Marine Corps from 2008 to 2013, deployed to Afghanistan from Nov. 16, 2010 to June 14, 2011. @USMC says he ranked as corporal as machine gunner https://t.co/1zZBN2nXZ5 pic.twitter.com/N3uCPO5eKN
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) November 8, 2018
According to the Los Angeles Times and New York Times some people who survived the Borderline Bar & Grill shooting also escaped the mass shooting at the Route 91 music festival in Las Vegas last year.
“A lot of people in the Route 91 situation go here,” Chandler Gunn, 23, told the LA Times. “There’s people that live a whole lifetime without seeing this, and then there’s people that have seen it twice.”
Carl Edgar, 24, said he had friends survive the Vegas attack at a country music festival shooting that left 58 dead in October 2017 as well as this one in the country-western themed bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
“If they survived that, they’ll survive this,” Edgar told the Times.
Chris Weber, who rushed to the bar after learning a friend might have been shot, told The New York Times he believed people inside the bar at the time had also attended the festival.
Journalists on the scene have said they have heard similar stories about victims who had survived both shootings.
We are hearing that some of the people who were at #Borderline, were also at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, scene of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. #ThousandOaks #shooting
— Marc Brown (@abc7marc) November 8, 2018
A man outside the Borderline bar awaiting word on his friends says they had previously attended the Route 91 festival in Vegas that was the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in US history. Terrible.
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) November 8, 2018
Witnesses are describing terrifying moments inside the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks. #BorderlineShooting pic.twitter.com/DDJ7JHrJOg
— Joshua Short (@JoshuaShortWNDU) November 8, 2018
Jason Coffman, the father of #BorderlineShooting victim Cody Coffman, 22, gives a heartbreaking message to reporters. Here is more on the Thousand Oaks shooting victims 👉https://t.co/fwCP7rv4VE pic.twitter.com/KFyzh4A1fK
— COED.com (@COED) November 8, 2018
The suspected shooter, 28-year-old Ian David Long’s gun, which appears to be a .45-caliber handgun, was purchased legally, according to ABC News. AP reports that he also deployed a smoke device.
Long lived in the 800 block of Newbury Park with his mother, about 5 miles from the shooting scene. Deputies responded last April to the home over a call of a family disturbance. Mental health specialists talked to the suspect that day and cleared him, Dean said. Law enforcement officials were at the Newbury Park home as part of the ongoing investigation.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he was “fully briefed on the terrible shooting.” He praised law enforcement, saying “Great bravery shown by police” and said “God bless all of the victims and families of the victims.”
I have been fully briefed on the terrible shooting in California. Law Enforcement and First Responders, together with the FBI, are on scene. 13 people, at this time, have been reported dead. Likewise, the shooter is dead, along with the first police officer to enter the bar….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2018
….Great bravery shown by police. California Highway Patrol was on scene within 3 minutes, with first officer to enter shot numerous times. That Sheriff’s Sergeant died in the hospital. God bless all of the victims and families of the victims. Thank you to Law Enforcement.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2018
