The Hero of The Borderline Bar And Grill Mass Shooting: After being shot six times, went down shooting
USE OF DEADLY FORCE BY CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICER TODD BARRETT AND VENTURA COUNTY SHERIFF’S SERGEANT RONALD HELUS AT THE BORDERLINE BAR & GRILL MASS SHOOTING INCIDENT 12 were killed including
Sergeant Ron Helus who was shot and killed while responding to a mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California on November 7th, 2018. Upon arriving at the scene Sergeant Helus could hear gun shots coming from inside the Borderline Bar & Grill. He made entry along with a California Highway Patrol officer in order to confront the gunman and protect the lives of the nearly 20. CNOA
The Report From the DA: On the evening of November 7, 2018, Ian David Long (DOB 03/27/1990) entered the Borderline Bar & Grill in the city of Thousand Oaks armed with a handgun, approximately 190 rounds of ammunition, a knife, and 10 smoke generating devices. Within minutes, he had killed or wounded numerous individuals as the rest of the approximately 260 patrons and employees scrambled to hide or escape. As law enforcement responded, Long was methodically moving through the building, searching for, and killing victims that he found. Approximately six minutes after the shooting started, three law enforcement officers—Ventura County Sheriff’s Sergeant Ron Helus and California Highway Patrol Officers Todd Barrett and Lidia Espinoza—made an approach to confront Long.
Long was concealed in the Borderline’s front office which was located to the right of the front entrance. Long was able to watch the officers as they approached on a monitor in the office which displayed live feed views from the Borderline’s nine video cameras. Sergeant Helus and Officer Barrett entered through the front entrance with no knowledge of Long’s location. Long watched the officers’ progress on the monitor and prepared to confront the officers. Approximately 23 seconds after the officers made entry, Long went to the office doorway and from a distance of approximately 7 to 14 feet from
Sergeant Helus, began firing at them.
Officer Barrett retreated out the door to the bottom of the front stairway and returned fire. Sergeant Helus began retreating but fell as he was moving toward the door. He low crawled out the door and, as he began to stand, was struck by one of Officer Barrett’s shots fired at Long. Sergeant Helus managed to reach an alcove outside the front
entrance, rolled onto his back and returned fire directly at Long, who continued to fire at both officers. Officer Barrett also continued to return fire at Long until he retreated to a safer position. Sergeant Helus was struck by five penetrating gunshots by Long and one penetrating gunshot by Officer Barrett.
Sergeant Helus was rescued from the front entry but was later pronounced dead at the hospital. When law enforcement made a second entry, it was discovered that Long had committed suicide. Long fired 61 rounds during the incident and had 129 rounds remaining when he died. During the second entry, law enforcement rescued 19 individuals from inside the Borderline. Ten homicide victims were located inside the building and another homicide victim was located outside.1 No civilian victims were shot by Long after the officers engaged him. No civilian victims were struck by the shots fired by the officers.
The District Attorney’s Office has an officer-involved shooting team available to all Ventura County law enforcement agencies to assist in the investigation of officer- involved shootings. Once the District Attorney’s Office was notified of the shooting, District Attorney Gregory Totten, Chief Deputy District Attorney Miles Weiss, Chief Investigator Michael Baray, and numerous District Attorney Investigators responded to the shooting scene and consulted with the investigating officers.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office conducted an investigation of the Borderline incident, including Officer Barrett’s and Sergeant Helus’s use of deadly force, which included interviewing witnesses, collecting physical evidence, and photographing the
area of the shooting. Both surviving officers individually provided a voluntary interview with criminal investigators where they described the incident.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office’s investigative reports and follow-up investigation were submitted to the District Attorney’s Office for a determination of whether the use of deadly force by Officer Barrett and Sergeant Helus was justified and, if not, whether criminal charges should be filed. The scope of the District Attorney’s review was limited to those issues.
The District Attorney’s review encompassed approximately 1.3 terabytes of data, which included interviews of law enforcement and civilian witnesses, surveillance video, body- worn camera recordings, dashcam (MVARS)2 recordings, diagrams, photographs, recordings of radio transmissions, and examining the scene of the shooting.
Based on the information available for review, the District Attorney’s investigation, and the applicable legal authorities, it is the opinion of the District Attorney that the use of deadly force by California Highway Patrol Officer Barrett during the Borderline incident, including the inadvertent shooting of Sergeant Helus, was justified and was not a criminal act. It is further the opinion of the District Attorney that the use of deadly force by Ventura County Sheriff’s Sergeant Helus during the Borderline incident was justified and was not a criminal act and, if Long had survived, he could have been prosecuted for the provocative act murder of Sergeant Helus.
STATEMENT OF FACTS
A. Shots Fired at the Borderline
November 7, 2018, was College Country Night at the Borderline Bar & Grill, a popular country music venue. College Country Night was regularly attended by students from nearby colleges. Approximately 260 patrons and employees were in the establishment at the time the shooting began.
At approximately 11:18 p.m., Ian David Long entered the Borderline and opened fire. Within a few seconds, he shot several employees and patrons. Most of the remaining patrons fled for their lives but several hid in various places inside the Borderline. Long ignited and threw smoke grenades which filled the Borderline with thick smoke.
Aerial view of the Borderline.
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For the next few minutes, Long walked through the Borderline looking for victims and shooting them as he found them. He made the front office his base of operations. The front office was on the southern side of the building, behind the front cashier area to the right of the front entrance. A monitor was mounted on the east wall of the front office which displayed live feeds of nine surveillance cameras covering the interior and exterior of the Borderline. While he was in the front office, Long posted to social media and frequently checked his phone.3
B. Police Response
Prior to the shooting, California Highway Patrol Officers Todd Barrett and
Lidia Espinoza were conducting a traffic stop on Moorpark Road southwest of the 101 freeway, less than a quarter mile from the Borderline. Patrons of the Borderline ran to them shouting about the shooting. Officer Espinoza sent the stopped car away and Officer Barrett notified CHP Dispatch, “Reports of shots fired at Borderline, shots fired at Borderline.” Officer Espinoza got into the patrol vehicle and Officer Barrett drove them to the Borderline parking lot.
When Officers Barrett and Espinoza arrived at the Borderline parking lot, they saw numerous people. Some were fleeing, some were taking cover, and some appeared to be injured. Some of the individuals provided information that the shooter was dressed in black and had moved toward the rear of the Borderline. Officer Barrett and
Officer Espinoza used cars in the parking lot as cover and moved to a position where they could observe the east side of the building.
A short time later, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sergeant Ron Helus arrived on the scene. Officer Espinoza approached him and briefed him about the situation and Sergeant Helus said, “Okay, let’s go, let’s go.” Officer Barrett approached and asked Sergeant Helus to ask for deputies to cover the rear of the building. Sergeant Helus relayed that request over his radio.
. The Officer-Involved Shooting
Officer Barrett asked Sergeant Helus, “Are you ready?” and Sergeant Helus responded, “Yeah, let’s go.” The three officers then began approaching the front entrance to the Borderline to confront Long.4 It took them a little over one minute to reach the stairway leading to the front entrance. Outside the building they located Garrett Gratland, who told them that the shooter had not come out the front entrance.
As they made their way up the stairs, Sergeant Helus led, Officer Barrett was second in line, and Officer Espinoza was third. Sergeant Helus saw a person lying on the floor when he reached the top of the stairs. He called out to the other officers, “I have a body down–at the door.” Sergeant Helus called out to the person, “Sir, are you okay?” but there was no response.
Sergeant Helus crossed the threshold of the Borderline front entryway. He again asked the person, “Are you okay?” He then yelled, “Sheriff’s Department!” and activated the light on his rifle. Sergeant Helus used the light to carefully look further into the bar. Long was in the front office and had been checking his phone but when Sergeant Helus
entered, Long turned off the screen, assumed a two-handed grip on his handgun, and braced his back against the wall farthest from the door.
Officer Barrett was at the top of the stairs and Officer Espinoza was two stairs behind him. Officer Barrett directed Officer Espinoza to, “Watch the left,” and gestured toward the left bottom of the stairs. Officer Espinoza backed down the stairway and took a position halfway down the stairway on the right (east) side, then moved to the bottom left (west) side of the stairs with her shotgun in a low ready position. She did not fire any weapons during the encounter.
From the doorway, Sergeant Helus observed multiple victims. He notified Sheriff’s Dispatch, “We got multiple people down. We need a lot of ambulances, fire.”
Officer Barrett also notified CHP Dispatch that there were multiple victims. Long had been watching the officers’ progress on the surveillance monitor. He stood against the wall farthest from the office door, holding his gun at a ready position.
for the ENTIRE DA REPORT VISIT HERE
Sergeant Helus proceeded further into the Borderline, staying close to a cashier counter on the right side of the doorway and using his rifle light to illuminate the area and look around.
Long had begun moving forward with his gun at ready but reacted as light from Sergeant Helus’s gun light illuminated the front office, causing Long to retreat into the darkness of the office.
Sergeant Helus moved further into the entry way. He told Officer Barrett, “We have multiple down to the right.” Officer Barrett entered behind Sergeant Helus with his rifle shouldered and ready. Sergeant Helus told Officer Barrett, “Cover left,” and Officer Barrett replied, “I am,” as he moved in. Officer Barrett crouched down and checked on the person lying on the left side of the entryway. Sergeant Helus notified Sheriff’s Dispatch that there were, “At least five down inside.” Long had been approaching the office doorway and, at that moment, moved into the doorway and opened fire on the officers.
Officer Barrett was crouched down by the person lying near the left side door. As Long began shooting, Officer Barrett sprung to his feet and retreated out the door.
Sergeant Helus was further inside the Borderline, within 7 to 14 feet of Long as the gunfire erupted. Sergeant Helus also moved toward the door, but his feet became entangled with a rope strung between two stanchions and he fell to the ground.5 He low crawled out the door and as he reached the stairwell attempted to stand. Long began firing from the office doorway then ran to the front counter, leaned over it, and fired at the officers through the front doorway.
Officer Espinoza ran across the walkway and took cover behind a brick ledge.
Officer Barrett headed down the front stairway. When he reached the bottom, Officer Barrett turned to face Long and shouldered his rifle. He was standing on the front walkway just behind a short planter which bordered the left side of the stairway. Sergeant Helus crawled out the front door onto the landing directly in between Long and Officer Barrett’s positions.
Sergeant Helus began to stand at the same time that Officer Barrett began to return fire. One of Officer Barrett’s shots hit Sergeant Helus, causing him to fall forward into an alcove on the right side of the landing. Officer Barrett and Long continued firing for a few seconds, then Long retreated into the front office.
Sergeant Helus rolled onto his left side and reacquired his rifle, turning it toward Long’s last location at the front counter. The alcove where Sergeant Helus lay was directly south of the front counter and was separated from the counter by a window. Officer Barrett notified CHP Dispatch, “Officer down–officer down–11-99.”
Long reappeared at the front counter, leaned over it again and began firing out the doorway. Officer Barrett returned fire from his position at the bottom of the stairway. Sergeant Helus rolled onto his back and returned fire at Long through the window. Long
fired back at the officers, then returned to the office. Officer Barrett backed away from the area, telling civilian Garrett Gratland, “Get out of here!” Officer Barrett made his way back to Officer Espinoza, and they both retreated to the street and took cover behind a patrol vehicle.
D. Ian David Long Commits Suicide
Long retrieved another smoke grenade, ignited it, and threw it out the office door. He posted to social media and frequently checked his phone and appeared to prepare for another confrontation with police. Approximately 15 minutes after the gun battle, Long sat down, placed his handgun under his chin, and fired a shot into his head, killing himself.