California, shooting at a bar near Los Angeles. 13 victims
Rights — di Valentina Neri
The death toll from the shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, near Los Angeles, stands at 13, including the attacker. The motive remains unknown.
California, shooting at a bar near Los Angeles. 13 victims
The death toll from the shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, near Los Angeles, stands at 13, including the attacker. The motive remains unknown.
It was Wednesday evening in California when a hooded man dressed in black opened fire at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, a venue where, as every week, a university party was under way. The tragic death toll stands at 13, including the attacker. At this point the circumstances of his death are unclear, and the authorities are entirely in the dark about the motive behind his actions. His personal details have not yet been released.
Around ten people were injured. Panic broke out inside the venue and dozens of young people fled through the windows, smashing them with bar stools.
Los Angeles, a police officer also killed
The first calls to 911 came in at around 11.20pm on Wednesday 7 November, when it was 8.20am on Thursday morning in Italy. Among the victims, alongside the young people who were in the bar, was Sheriff's Deputy Ron Helus, who had been the first to storm the venue. Helus had 29 years of service behind him and was just a few months away from retirement. He leaves behind a wife and a son.
The men and women of the LA School Police Department mourn the tragic loss of @VENTURASHERIFF Sgt Helus and all the innocent victims killed at the Bordeline Bar & Grill shooting. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and the entire Ventura County Community
United States President Donald Trump praised the courage and swift response of law enforcement on Twitter, noting that officers arrived on the scene immediately.
....Great bravery shown by police. California Highway Patrol was on scene within 3 minutes, with first officer to enter shot numerous times. That Sheriff’s Sergeant died in the hospital. God bless all of the victims and families of the victims. Thank you to Law Enforcement.
A bolt from the blue, in a quiet city
As the television network Fox reports, the bar where the massacre took place is very popular with students from the nearby California Lutheran University, as well as those from other universities a short distance away.
Incidents of this kind are an absolute exception in the life of Thousand Oaks, a quiet city of around 130,000 inhabitants in Ventura County, which forms part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Business Insider ranking places it third among the safest cities in the United States, with an annual average of 123 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants.
More than three hundred shootings since the start of 2018
To find a mass shooting in the United States with a higher death toll, one has to go back nine months, to 14 February, when nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The so-called "Valentine's Day massacre" claimed the lives of no fewer than 17 people, adults and young people alike. A massacre that shocked the United States and beyond, tragically bringing the issue of school shootings back to the fore.
Read also: Let's try to understand the relationship between the United States and firearms, as far as that's possible
The wave of violent crime has not abated. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which keeps a tally of all shootings that occur in the United States, the Los Angeles shooting is the 27th in a month, and since the start of 2018 there have been as many as 307. Only about ten days ago came the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in which eleven people were killed. In that case, the attacker was driven by antisemitic hatred.