THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Nov 9: A former U.S. Marine combat veteran opened fire in a Los Angeles area bar and dance hall filled with college students, killing 12 people in a mass shooting that stunned a bucolic Southern California community with a reputation for safety.
The gunman, identified by police as 28-year-old Ian David Long, was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound following the Wednesday night massacre at Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, a suburb 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Los Angeles, law enforcement officials said.
Paul Delacourt, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, said it was too early to speculate on the shooter’s motives but that he appeared to have acted alone.
“We will be sure to paint a picture of the state of mind of the subject and do our best to identify a motivation,” Delacourt said, adding that the FBI would investigate any possible “radicalization” or links to militant groups.
Long opened fire, seemingly at random, inside the Western-themed bar at about 11:30 p.m. PST (0730 GMT Thursday), using a .45 caliber Glock handgun equipped with a high-capacity magazine, Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said.
Long was in the Marine Corps from 2008 to 2013, reaching the rank of corporal and serving as a machine gunner in Afghanistan, and the sheriff said he may have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Obviously, he had something going on in his head that would cause him to do something like this,” Dean said.