A Marine veteran clad in black and armed with a .45-caliber Glock handgun shot his way into a Southern California bar crowded with college students and unleashed hell before turning the gun on himself, officials said Thursday.
When it was over, 12 others, including a police officer who tried to stop the carnage, were also dead and many more were wounded.
While investigators identified the gunman as 28-year-old Ian David Long and tried to establish a motive, the nation was once again forced to grapple with tragedy and embark on the all-too-familiar rituals of mourning after yet another mass shooting. When the shooting started late Wednesday at the Borderline Bar & Grill in normally peaceful Thousands Oaks, about 40 miles west of Los Angeles, several hundred people were inside for a "college country night," Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said.