Gunman opens fire in California bar packed with college students

Twelve people — including a sheriff’s sergeant — were killed Wednesday night when a gunman opened fire inside a California bar and dance hall packed with college students, officials said.

The gunman was also killed after the massacre at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, where 10 other people were injured, according to Sheriff Geoff Dean. It was unclear how he died.

A law enforcement source described the attacker as a 29-year-old armed with a .45-caliber handgun and a “smoke device,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

He drove his mother’s car to the bar and did not utter a word before opening fire about 11:20 p.m. local time, the official said on condition of anonymity.

“He just pulled out a gun and shot my friend that was working the front desk,” said Holden Harrah, 21.

Witnesses said he then burst inside and randomly sprayed gunfire before police arrived.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Ron Helus and a California Highway Patrol officer entered the bar first and exchanged gunfire with the shooter by 11:26 p.m., Dean said.

Helus, a 29-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was hit several times and died at an area hospital early Thursday, said Dean.

“Ron was a hard-working, dedicated sheriff’s sergeant. He was totally committed, he gave his all and tonight, as I told his wife, he died a hero; he went in to save lives, to save other people,” Dean said, his voice breaking with emotion.

Helus is survived by his son and his wife, whom he called before entering the bar, Dean said.

“It doesn’t matter how safe your community is, it doesn’t matter how low your crime rate is — there are people who just don’t think properly everywhere, I don’t care where you are, and they commit horrific acts like this. There’s no way to process,” Dean said.

“There’s no way to make sense out of the senseless.”

The number injured is likely to rise, Ventura sheriff’s Capt. Garo Kuredjian said, as many people took themselves to area hospitals.

Dean said at least 10 other people who went to hospitals had been injured trying to escape the bloodbath, but were not shot.

“It’s a horrific incident,” he said. “It’s part of the horrors that are happening in our country and everywhere, and I think it’s impossible to put any logic or sense to the senseless.

“This community in my 41 years had never experienced anything like this,” he added.

A motive for the carnage was not immediately clear, but Dean said there was no evidence linking the attack to terrorism.

Authorities believe the attacker used a handgun, though several unconfirmed reports claimed the shooter was armed with an Uzi. Dean said investigators had not found any type of assault rifle in the bar.

“Right now as far as we know there was only one handgun, but that could certainly change as we do a more thorough search of the building,” he said.

Authorities are investigating initial reports that the gunman threw a smoke bomb.

“We have called in our bomb team to go through and a couple of bomb dogs here that are checking the area. But we haven’t found any other explosive device or confirmation that there was a smoke device,” Dean said.

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and officials from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives were also dispatched.

President Trump offered condolences, saying on Twitter that he has been “fully briefed on the terrible shooting.”

He praised law enforcement, saying: “Great bravery shown by police. California Highway Patrol was on scene within 3 minutes, with first officer to enter shot numerous times.”

“God bless all of the victims and families of the victims,” he added.

Witnesses reported a horrific scene as gunfire reverberated throughout the popular club and those inside ran for cover, in some cases using chairs to smash windows to escape the building, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Others hid in bathrooms and an attic as they desperately called loved ones who were hearing reports of the shooting.

“It’s a horrific scene in there, there is blood everywhere and the suspect is part of that, and I didn’t want to get that close and disturb the scene and possibly disturb the investigation,” Dean said.

Cole Knapp, a freshman at Moorpark College, said he thought initially that the shooting was “just someone with an M-80, just kind of playing a prank.”

Then he said he saw the shooter, wearing a black beanie and black hoodie and holding a handgun.

“I tried to get as many people to cover as I could,” Knapp said. “There was an exit right next to me, so I went through that. That exit leads to a patio where people smoke. People out there didn’t really know what was going on. There’s a fence right there so I said, ‘Everyone get over the fence as quickly as you can!’ and I followed them over.”

He said he saw a highway patrol officer nearby who just happened to be pulling someone over.

“I screamed to him, ‘There’s a shooter in there!’ He was kind of in disbelief, then saw that I was serious,” said Knapp, adding that
he has friends who haven’t been accounted for.

Teylor Whittler, who went to Borderline to celebrate her 21st birthday, was dancing with friends when she heard what sounded like firecrackers.

She quickly turned and followed the noise, only to find the gunman near the entrance.

Erika Sigman, 19, said she began to race toward an exit as soon as she heard yelling, the LA Times reported.

“I’m a Thousand Oaks resident,” she said. “This is a safe place. My parents let me go here. This is a trusted place. … To know that this happened in my safe place is a very, very scary thing.”

Sarah Rose DeSon told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she saw the gunman draw his weapon.

“I dropped to the floor,” she said. “A friend yelled, ‘Everybody down!’ We were hiding behind tables trying to keep ourselves covered.”

Shootings of any kind are very rare in Thousand Oaks, a city of about 130,000 people about 40 miles west of Los Angeles.

At nearby Los Robles Regional Medical Center, friends and relatives desperately searched for loved ones.

Adam Housley, who until recently was a Fox News correspondent, arrived at the hospital around 3:30 a.m. searching for his niece, but a guard didn’t let him through because the facility was on lockdown.

He said his niece, Alaina Housley, 18, a Pepperdine freshman, had been at the bar with friends. Her Apple Watch and iPhone still indicated her location as being on the dance floor, he said.

“My gut is saying she’s inside the bar, dead,” he said. “I’m hoping I’m wrong.”

With Post Wires