THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) — Authorities have identified the suspect in a mass shooting at a Southern California bar as 28-year-old Ian David Long.
Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean says Long is believed to have killed himself late Wednesday at the Borderline Bar and Grill in the city of Thousand Oaks.
Dean says his department had several previous contacts with the former Marine including a call to his home in April, when deputies found him acting irate and irrationally.
The sheriff says a mental health crisis team was called at that time and concluded that Long did not need to be taken into custody.
Dean says the other prior encounters were a traffic accident and an incident when he was the victim of a battery at a bar.
Long was found dead in the Borderline Bar and Grill after 12 people were shot to death late Wednesday.
The Southern California bar where the shooting took place says on its website that it’s been in operation for more than 25 years.
The Borderline Bar and Grill says it has the largest country dance hall and live music venue in Ventura County, which is north of Los Angeles.
The bar was holding its regular “College Country Nights” Wednesday night when the gunman dressed in black opened fire inside the bar.
The bar includes a large dance hall with a stage and a pool room along with several smaller areas for eating and drinking.
It is popular with students from nearby California Lutheran University who enjoy country music.
It is also close to several other universities, including California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, Pepperdine University in Malibu and Moorpark College in Moorpark.
California Lutheran University has canceled classes following a shooting at nearby bar where some of the college’s students were attending a country music dance night.
The Cal Lutheran website says the university community is invited to gather Thursday at the school’s chapel.
The university is a short drive from the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks where authorities say a gunman killed 12 people, including a sheriff’s sergeant, Wednesday night. The gunman was also found dead.
Cal Lutheran has more than 3,000 undergraduate students and more than 1,300 graduate students.
The Borderline Bar & Grill is about a 10-minute drive from California Lutheran University, where students started receiving messages about the shooting right after it started.
Cal Lutheran student body president Nick Steinwender told KTLA-TV he and his roommate went to the scene to offer rides back to campus and moral support and there were already other students from the university there.
Steinwender says “it just feels like it’s an attack on our community.”
