12 people were killed and 11 injured in a shooting at a California Bar yesterday morning.
The gunman, now identified by investigators as Ian David Long, approached the bar at around 11:20 PM wearing all black and shot the security guard and another staff member in front. He then went in, used smoke bombs, and shot employees and patrons inside. People hid in bathrooms, attic crawl spaces, and some threw bar stools at windows in an attempt to escape the crowded venue. He was found dead at the scene, most likely from a self-inflicted wound. The Washington Post reported that there is still no clear motive.
Long was a 28-year-old former marine, who once served in Afghanistan and had been reported to authorities previously. CNN reports that not only did Long frequent this bar, but that police actually visited him in April when a neighbor called after hearing shouting and banging coming from the home he lived in with his mother. Upon arrival, police at the scene recall him behaving “irate and irrationally,” but ended up being cleared by mental health professionals and authorities left, WSB-TV reported. His mother says she lived in “constant fear” that something like this could happen.
Courtesy: The New York Times
According to CBS News, the bar was packed with over 100 people in attendance for their weekly college night.
The weapon Long used was a .45 caliber handgun with an extended magazine that Long legally purchased. A witness named Taylor Whittler told The New York Times, “the gunman had perfect form and knew exactly what he was doing.”
Among those killed were Ron Heulos, a sheriff who responded to the call about the shooting, a 22-year-old named Cody Coffman, and Alaina Housley, the niece of actress Tamara Mowry.
It is speculated that numerous people who experienced this incident were also present at the Las Vegas concert where 58 were killed in a mass shooting. “There’s people that live a whole lifetime without seeing this, and then there’s people that have seen it twice,” said Chandler Gun, friends with some of the patrons at the bar, to the San Diego Times.
This shooting is the deadliest mass shooting that has occurred since the Parkland High School shooting, where 17 were killed. This tragedy takes place two weeks after a shooting where 11 were gunned down in a Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa., and not even a week after the Yoga Studio shooting here in Tallahassee.