His gun was reportedly purchased legally. Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean identified the gunman as 28-year-old Ian David Long. Sixteen others were injured, with only one being injured by gunfire. Ten of the civilians died inside the bar, while the eleventh died outside. They all died from multiple gunshots, and one victim was also stabbed in the neck. Ron Helus a 48-year-old bouncer a 33-year-old Marine Corps veteran and a 27-year-old Navy veteran who was at the 2017 Las Vegas shooting during the Route 91 Harvest music festival. The four others killed were 54-year-old Ventura County Sheriff's Sgt. Seven were college students, and one other a recent graduate. Nine men and three women died during the shooting. Nineteen survivors were rescued from inside the bar in total. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Homeland Security were deployed to further investigate the scene along with EMTs and paramedics from the Ventura County Fire Department and AMR to assist victims. At 11:38 p.m., he committed suicide by shooting himself under the chin. Forty seconds later, he threw another firework out of the office. At 11:37 p.m., he lit a firework and threw it out of the bar's front office. Long stopped his attack following the exchange of gunfire with police. A SWAT team and other police officers arrived on the scene shortly afterwards. Responding Ventura County Sheriff's deputies, who were securing the perimeter, located and evacuated Helus outside the building 20 minutes after he had been shot. Initially there was confusion and miscommunication as to whether there was an officer down. Positioned between Long and the CHP officer, Helus was also accidentally struck by a bullet from the officer's rifle that went through his heart and fatally wounded him. In the ensuing gunfight, Helus was shot five times by Long, who used a flashlight with a laser sight on his pistol in the large, darkened, smoke-filled room.
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A minute later, they came under fire from Long, who had been monitoring their movements through the nine security cameras visible on a monitor in the front office where he had been taking shelter. The three officers ventured towards the building, with Helus and one of the CHP officers entering at 11:25 p.m. They arrived at the bar's parking lot a minute later and were joined by Ventura County Sheriff's Sgt. Īt 11:19 p.m., two California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers on a traffic stop nearby were alerted to the shooting by people who had managed to escape. During the shooting, Long answered a phone call made by the mother of a patron who escaped, and he also made several posts on Instagram expressing his thoughts. Some people shattered the bar's windows, allowing many to flee, while some others hid in an employee bathroom or the attic. Witnesses described the gunman as a heavily tattooed white male dressed entirely in black. Many of the victims died in the first few minutes of the shooting while they were lying on the floor or trying to charge at Long. He fired a total of 61 rounds and threw smoke bombs. Upon entering through the bar's front door, Long first killed the cashier nearby, then started shooting at the patrons.
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45-caliber Glock 21 semi-automatic pistol with a Viridian X5L tactical weapon light & laser sight and seven banned high-capacity magazines, carrying a total of 190 rounds, along with a folding knife, ten smoke bombs, and two fireworks. At the time, the bar was hosting a regularly scheduled College Country Night event, and it was popular among students in the area, especially those from Pepperdine University, California Lutheran University, California State University Channel Islands, and Moorpark College. At 11:18 p.m., a gunman, later identified as Ian David Long, entered the Borderline Bar and Grill and opened fire on the approximately 260 patrons and employees inside.