Former Marine Ian David Long, 28, was gunman in California bar rampage, police say

A former Marine — armed with a Glock .45-caliber handgun with an illegal extended magazine — opened fire on a packed California country music bar Wednesday night, killing 12 people, including a veteran sheriff’s sergeant nearing retirement, officials said.

Authorities believe Ian David Long eventually turned the gun on himself, but not before the 28-year-old, dressed in all black, terrorized a crowd filled with college students at Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Calif. His body was found in an office adjacent to the entrance of the bar.

Sheriff Geoff Dean, who is set to retire on Friday, said Long may have suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and was known to law enforcement officials due to several unspecified contacts stretching back multiple years.

“We’ve had several contacts with Mr. Long over the years, minor events such as a traffic collision. He was a victim of a battery in a bar in 2015,” Dean said, adding that the bar wasn’t the same establishment he had opened fire Wednesday night.

Dean said the last interaction between Long and authorities occurred in April, when police officers were called to Long’s house after reports of a disturbance. When they arrived, officers found Long “irate and acting irrationally,” leading to a crisis intervention team being summoned. The team, however, cleared Long and said they didn’t feel he was qualified to be taken into custody.

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