'Everybody was floored': Nothing prepared detectives for Borderline shooting

Kathleen Wilson | Ventura

Show Caption Hide Caption Borderline community stays strong 6 months after deadly shooting Six months after 12 were killed by a gunman at the Borderline Bar and Grill, survivors and investigators look back in order to find a way forward.

The detectives leading the probe of the Borderline shooting have investigated scores of violent deaths over the years, but say nothing prepared them for the mass murder in which 12 people were killed six months ago.

“There is no training, no personal experience to pull from,” said Detective Michael Marco, one of three homicide investigators assigned to the case in the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. “I think everybody was floored. You are trained and taught to put those feelings aside and investigate the case to the best of your ability.”

Marco along with Detective Sgt. Dean Worthy and Detective Randy Skaggs have spent the bulk of their working hours over the last six months trying to find out exactly what happened on Nov. 7 and why. Their findings probably won’t be released for months, but nothing has turned up so far to indicate that gunman Ian David Long had any help or that anyone knew of his intentions before the attack at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Worthy said.

The officer said he can’t say that for sure until he receives the electronic data the FBI retrieves from the computers and tablets seized from Long’s home in Newbury Park. He said he expects to get the data by summer.

He declined to comment on Long's motive, but said a summary of the investigation will be released to the public that should shed some light on it.

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"I don’t think we will be able to say with 100% certainty why he did what he did or why he chose that venue, but we currently do have a working motive," he said.

The evidence does not show that Long set out to kill anyone in particular in the crowd of 255 people, he said. Long, 28, chose people who were vulnerable because they had no way to get out of the bar or had already been injured, he said.

Long fired more than 50 rounds, killing 11 people and striking Sheriff's Sgt. Ron Helus multiple times before fatally shooting himself in the head, officials in the Sheriff's Office have reported. Helus was fatally struck by a round fired from the rifle of California Highway Patrol Officer Todd Barrett as the two officers were responding to the shooting, officials said.

A total of 128 survivors reported physical injuries: a gunshot victim, four individuals with fractured bones and dislocated joints, 13 who required sutures, and 110 people who sustained bumps, scrapes, bruises or complained of pain.

Long was armed with seven 30-round magazines, leaving scores of unused bullets in his possession. Worthy said he probably didn't kill more people for two reasons: he was confronted by Helus and Barrett, and the patrons acted quickly to help each other escape.

"They smashed out windows, they threw bar stools and tables through the windows," he said. "They were picking up weaker people or women and getting them out the windows and out the doors to scramble to save one another."

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Marco said some who escaped to safety returned to help people get out of the windows while the shooter was still firing. "There were a lot of heroes in this tragic incident," he said.

'Unprecedented' investigation

Sheriff Bill Ayub says the sheriff's office — which is the largest law enforcement agency in the county — has never done a bigger investigation.

"This is an investigation that is unprecedented in scope and size for our agency, and I think any agency in Ventura County," Ayub said. Although it's just a guess, he hoped the probe could be completed by September.

He said more than 400 interviews were conducted, many of them lengthy. Then those recordings had to be transcribed and compared with each other to get an accurate picture of what happened, Ayub said.

"Our purpose is to try and find out the truth," he said.

Officers said interviews were conducted with the bar patrons, anyone who had any knowledge of the event, Long's mother, individuals who saw survivors fleeing from the bar and people who answered their doors in nearby homes when survivors knocked looking for help.

The detectives are looking at Long's life, events that led up to his decision to kill, what the patrons of the bar did before the incident and after they were attacked and what Long did during the shooting. They also are analyzing and documenting the police response.

Worthy said it was important to interview the patrons to track what the gunman did and what they did to get out and help each other, but also to eliminate the possibility that anyone assisted him.

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Detectives also are reviewing the large amounts of electronic data retrieved from the scene and outside it. They have video from more than 10 surveillance cameras located inside the bar and on the exterior of a medical building next door, body cameras worn by police who responded and a dashboard camera inside an officer's car. They also are reviewing transmissions of police radio traffic, more than 85 calls to the 911 emergency service and video and text messages from bar customers' mobile phones.

"You have to marry all that stuff together to tell the tale," Worthy said.

Officers have "a vast amount" of information on Long's actions that night because of the large number of security cameras in the bar, which is not always the case in mass shootings, Worthy said. He said he could not release that information now but that it will be incorporated into the investigative summary.

Worthy said hundreds of people have worked on the investigation, including officers in the sheriff's office and other police departments plus personnel from state and federal agencies.

Several agencies in the Los Angeles and Ventura County areas sent trained personnel to operate laser scanners that documented the crime scene in three dimensions. The FBI collected evidence and diagrammed the scene and location of each piece of evidence, including the location and trajectories of the bullets, Ayub said.

"We try to figure out which direction each bullet went and where did it go," the sheriff said. "It really helps us to learn about what happened in the event there is a prosecution or some kind of court action, and more importantly, in my view, so we can learn, devise security procedures or change tactics or equipment."

Worthy said the sheriff's office wants to let the public and more importantly, the families of the victims, know what happened that night.

Jason Coffman, whose 22-year-old son Cody Gifford-Coffman was killed at the Borderline, looks forward to seeing the conclusions.

"I want to know what happened to my son. I want to know what was going on inside, what was the final verdict on how my son was killed. I want to know everything."

Kathleen Wilson covers the Ventura County government, including the county health system, politics and social services. Reach her at kathleen.wilson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0271.

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