US shooter identified as 28-year-old veteran named Ian David Long

FBI investigators arrive at the home of suspected nightclub shooter Ian David Long on November 8 2018, in Thousand Oaks, California. – The gunman who killed 12 people in a crowded California country music bar has been identified as 28-year-old Ian David Long, a former Marine, the local sheriff said Thursday. The suspect, who was armed with a .45-caliber handgun, was found deceased at the Borderline Bar and Grill, the scene of the shooting in the city of Thousand Oaks northwest of downtown Los Angeles. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP)

THOUSAND OAKS, United States (AFP) — The gunman who killed 12 people in a crowded California country music bar has been identified as 28-year-old Ian David Long, a former Marine, the local sheriff said Thursday.

The suspect, who was armed with a .45-caliber handgun, was found deceased at the Borderline Bar and Grill, the scene of the shooting in the city of Thousand Oaks northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

“We believe he shot himself,” Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said.

“We have had several contacts with Mr. Long over the years, minor events, a traffic collision,” Dean told a news conference.

Deputies were called to Long’s house in response to a disturbance in April this year and “felt he might be suffering from PTSD,” he said.

Long was “somewhat irate. Acting a little irrationally,” he said. However, mental health specialists who were called in “talked to him, and cleared him.”

Investigators have not established a motive for the shooting, and knew of nothing that connected Long to the Borderline.

Dean said Long was veteran who had served in the Marine Corps.

© Agence France-Presse