Horrific Shooting in Southern California bar

By Makayla Ramsey, Reporter

Wednesday night at the country music bar in Southern California, a marine combat veteran shot and killed 12 people. The man was identified as 28 year old Ian David long.

Around 11:20 pm a man Dressed in all black with a hood pulled up, opened fire with a illegal extra capacity handgun.

Investigators believe that Long went up to the bar and first shot the security guards outside then going inside and aiming at the people in the bar

After spraying bullets for almost three minutes and killing 11 other victims, the gunman then went into an office near the front of the bar where he was found dead, apparently killing himself, police said.

There is no clear motive but police believe that since Long was a former machine gunner and Afghanistan war veteran that he may have been battling his own demons.

Long was interviewed by police at his home last spring after an episode of agitated behavior that authorities were told might be post-traumatic stress disorder. He was also interview by a mental health specialist but they thought he wasn’t a danger to others and could get him to seek help.

His neighbors said they been worried before even one said that he had to call the police after hearing yelling and loud banging.

The shooting took place inside a popular college bar, Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, known as a safe community to residents.

Sadly for some of the people this was not a new experience. Several of the people said they were at the country music festival in Las Vegas last year, where a gunman shot and killed 58 in a hotel.

Jason Coffman received a call that his son, cody at 22 years old and was about to join the army was placed into the hospital after being severely injured after being shot at the bar.

While being interviewed Coffman said his last words to his son before he left to go to the festival were,

“Please don’t drink and drive Cody,- i love you son”

Coffman wasn’t the only parent that are hurt from what happened that night at the bar.  many ask for prayers and thought for their families. While on the other hand on mother said

“I don’t want prayers. I don’t want thoughts, I want those bastards in Congress — they need to pass gun control so no one else has a child that doesn’t come home.”

While what happened this night was horrific, its very fortunate how quickly people fled the seen and it ended up saving a lot of lives. The community is conservative and popular with law enforcement and has pride for their safety, and is determined to keep things like this from happening again.