A gunman opened fire overnight in a Southern California bar and country music venue. The Ventura County sheriff said the bar was crowded with more than 100 people, many of them college students.
The gunman, identified by police as Ian David Long, 28, killed 12 people, including a sheriff's sergeant who responded to the gunfire. Police later found the shooter dead inside the bar, possibly from a self-inflicted wound.
The rampage took place at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Authorities don't yet have a motive for the shooting.
"There was just young people, like young, 18, 19, 20, just having a great time," said a step-father who was at the bar with his step-son. "And this maniac came in and started shooting at people for no reason at all."
Ventura County Sheriff's Sgt. Ron Helus, who was killed while responding to the shooting, was on the phone with his wife when he was dispatched to the Borderline Bar & Grill, Sheriff Geoff Dean told reporters. Helus would call his wife several times during his shift, Dean said.
"'Hey, I gotta go handle a call, I love you, I'll talk to you later,'" Dean said Helus told his wife. Earlier on "CBS This Morning," Dean said he and Helus were friends.
The sheriff said he had "no doubt" that Helus and a California Highway Patrol officer accompanying him saved lives by engaging with gunman Ian Long. "I've heard anywhere from 150 to 200 people in there. Not that by any means the loss of 13 lives is good, but it could have been much, much worse," Dean said.
Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said that Ian Long drove to the Borderline Bar & Grill on Wednesday night and opened fire before he entered the nightclub. Long, who had served in the U.S. Marine Corps, used a Glock .45-caliber handgun that he purchased legally, Dean said.
Dean said that investigators do not know Long's motive for carrying out the shooting. Long shot a security guard outside the bar and continued shooting once he entered the club.
"It appears that he turned to the right and shot several of the other security and employees there and then began opening fire inside the nightclub," Dean said.
Earlier on "CBS This Morning," Dean said the scene was "horrific." "When the officers went in, the suspect was already dead, but it was horrific," he said. "There were 11 victims inside plus the suspect and then, in addition, my sergeant that was killed trying to make entry."
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