THOUSAND OAKS, CA – Twelve people, including a local law enforcement official, were killed in a mass shooting at a country dance bar in Thousand Oaks Wednesday night. A hooded gunman dressed in all black, identified by authorities as 28-year-old Ian David Long of Newbury Park, reportedly tossed smoke bombs into the Borderline Bar & Grill and opened fire.
The lone gunman opened fire just before 11:30 p.m., Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean told reporters. Witnesses told reporters the shooter first shot at someone working the door, then began firing at random people inside. A highway patrol officer and Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus entered the building about three minutes after gunfire erupted – Helus was killed, the gunman is also dead.
Here are five things to know about Ian Long:
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1. He served in the Marine Corps.
The United States Marine Corps released military service details on Long Thursday morning. According to a statement obtained by Tara Copp, the Pentagon Bureau Chief Military Times, Long served in the Marine Corps from Aug. 4, 2008 to Mar. 2, 2013. He was a machine gunner, promoted to corporal on Aug. 1, 2011.
Long’s awards include two Navy Unit Commendations, a Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, a Combat Action Ribbon, a National Defense Service Medal, a Good Conduct Medal and more. He deployed to Afghanistan from Nov. 16, 2010 to June 14, 2011 and his last duty assignment was 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
2. He had run-ins with local law enforcement before.
“We’ve had several contacts with Mr. Long over the years,” Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean told reporters Thursday morning. There were minor events like a traffic collision, he said, but Long was also the victim of a battery at a local bar in 2015.
In April of this year, deputies were called to Long’s house for a “subject disturbing,” Dean said. Deputies went to the home and talked to Long, who was “somewhat irate and acting a little irrationally,” the Sheriff said. The crisis intervention team was called, and a mental health specialist who talked with Long “didn’t feel he was qualified to be taken under 5150,” Dean said.
A “5150” refers to the California Welfare and Institutions code for the involuntary psychiatric commitment of an individual who presents a danger to themselves or others as a result of a mental health disorder.
3. He may have suffered from PTSD.
A neighbor of Long told reporters he was known to suffer from PTSD. He lived with his elderly mother and was known to kick in the walls of the home in fits of rage, neighbor Richard Berge, 77, told the Los Angeles Times.
4. He bought the firearm used in the shooting legally.
Sheriff Dean told reporters Thursday morning that Long purchased the gun used in the shooting legally. The weapon used in the shooting was a Glock 21 .45-caliber handgun. In California, it’s designed to hold 10 rounds and one in the chamber, but when Long opened fire there was an extended magazine on it.
“We do not know at this time how many rounds were actually in the weapon or how many rounds the magazine could actually hold because it’s still being processed as part of the evidence,” Dean said.
5. He was a white man, like most mass shooters.
Long fit the profile of most mass killers in this country in that he was a man, and he was white. While experts say there is no single profile for a mass shooter — no specific mental illness linked to massacres, and no likely socio-economic background — there are commonalities. Most mass killers are men, and they frequently have had run-ins with the law related to domestic violence or domestic disturbances, The New York Times reported.
They also share a sense of inflated grievance, according to experts. Long appeared to fit that profile according to a post he wrote on a military forum called Shadowspear last year, according to CNN.
“I was honorably discharged in 2013. I am graduating with a B.S. in Athletic Training in two months. I found out a little too late that just wasn’t the job for me. Maybe the ego got the better of me but it took only one time for a 19 year old D-2 athlete to talk down to me and tell me how to do my job that I realized this wasn’t the career I wanted to head.”
According to data compiled by Mother Jones, which looks at mass shootings from 1982 through 2018, a majority of the mass shootings in the United States were committed by white men.
Related: Thousand Oaks Mass Shooting: 12 Slain, Gunman Dead
This 2017 photo from the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows Ian David Long. Authorities said the Marine combat veteran opened fire Wednesday evening, Nov. 7, 2018, at a country music bar in Southern California, killing multiple people before apparently taking his own life. (California Department of Motor Vehicles via AP)