Shooter had encounters with policeFree Access




KNOWN TO AUTHORITIES—FBI agents search the home of Ian Long on Fowler Avenue in Newbury Park on Nov. 8. Long, an ex-Marine, killed 12 people at the Borderline Bar and Grill using a Glock handgun equipped with a high-capacity magazine. RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

KNOWN TO AUTHORITIES—FBI agents search the home of Ian Long on Fowler Avenue in Newbury Park on Nov. 8. Long, an ex-Marine, killed 12 people at the Borderline Bar and Grill using a Glock handgun equipped with a high-capacity magazine. RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

Why did police not seize Borderline shooter Ian David Long’s gun when they went to his Newbury Park home in April for a disturbance call?

The answer to that question isn’t so simple, local law enforcement officials say.

Capt. Garo Kuredjian with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said deputies who interviewed Long in April did request an onsite evaluation by two specialists with the county’s behavioral health department. But those specialists determined Long, 28, did not qualify for what’s known as a “51-50,” a state penal code designation for someone who needs to be involuntarily committed for psychiatric evaluation.

Had they reached a different conclusion, law enforcement could have seized the .45-caliber Glock Long used to kill 12 people Nov. 7 at Borderline Bar and Grill before turning the gun on himself.

Kuredjian stressed that in the six months between the call to the Fowler Avenue home Long shared with his mother and the deadly shooting, police didn’t have any contact with the former Marine.

“If we don’t get calls for service, that makes it difficult to establish a pattern of behavior,” he said.

When deputies arrived in April, Long had reportedly been arguing with his mother and punching walls. The Newbury Park High School grad, who lost his father to cancer when he was young, was already known to his neighbors on the small residential street as someone to avoid.

He left the military in 2013 a decorated soldier who served his country in Afghanistan, rising to the rank of corporal. But the man deputies observed in April was acting strangely enough that they called in two members of the county’s behavioral health department to decide whether he was a danger to himself or others, Kuredjian said.

After an interview, the specialists concluded Long didn’t require further observation, former Sheriff Geoff Dean said shortly after the shooting at Borderline.

Calls to Ventura County Behavioral Health have not been returned as of press time.

None of the neighbors the Acorn spoke to said they knew Long personally, but several said he’d earned a bad reputation.

Jim Ballard, who lives across the street from the Longs, said neighbors would sometimes share stories of Ian Long “banging around” inside the home. Ballard, a retired grocery manager, said he saw police on the scene in April. He said he saw a sheriff’s deputy in the driveway with his gun pointed at Long.

Kuredjian didn’t know if it was true that Long had been held at gunpoint, and inquiries submitted to Ayub about the incident went unanswered.

Greg Beastron lives at the top of the street. He said his wife had seen Long in front of his house before and said he “seemed not right.” The 57-year-old voice actor has lived on Fowler for 12 years. He said his wife would chat with Long’s mother as she walked her dogs.

He said Long—who served as a machine gunner in Afghanistan—had a history of service-related PTSD, and his mother struggled to get her son the treatment he needed.

“She said she was frustrated,” Beastron said. “You’d think being a vet, you could get some help through the VA or something.”

Crisis team

The Ventura County Law Enforcement Crisis Intervention Team, founded in 2001, trains law enforcement officers to identify signs and symptoms of mental illness, de-escalate situations and help residents find resources and referrals.

Mark Stadler, program administrator for the CIT program and a retired police officer with nearly 30 years on the job, said officers countywide respond to countless such disturbance calls every year. Each one is unique.

Although he doesn’t know the specifics of the April call to Long’s home, Stadler said, police do have the authority to remove firearms from a private residence if they feel the person is a danger to themselves or others.

California also has a gun violence restraining order law—also called the “red flag” law—that allows family members or police to petition a judge to get a court order that prohibits someone from having a gun. The law was written after the Isla Vista mass shooting in 2014.

Stadler said it’s more common for police in the county to use a 51-50 hold rather than the red flag law to remove a firearm from a home because it can be done on scene as it doesn’t require a judge’s approval.

He said he wishes more members of the public knew about the red flag law because they don’t need police intervention to petition for the court order.

Kuredjian said an investigation into Long, which will include all contacts police had with him—including a 2015 bar fight in which Long was not the aggressor—is ongoing.

Kuredjian said Long had been involved in a traffic accident and had a speeding ticket, both about 10 years ago.

Reporters Dawn Megli- Thuna and Cameron Kiszla contributed to this report.