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The Washington Post

Ventura County sheriff’s Sergeant Ron Helus was talking to his wife when calls started coming in about a shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, California.
“Hey, I got to go handle a call. I love you. I’ll talk to you later,” he told her, according to Sheriff Geoff Dean.

It was the last time she would talk to her husband.
Emergency calls had flooded 911 after a gunman entered the bar on Wednesday night, and he methodically killed people on a dance floor scuffed by cowboy boots at college country night, witnesses later said.
California gunman Ian David Long was ex-Marine who may have had PTSD
Gunfire was still crackling at the Borderline when Helus, a veteran deputy, arrived on the scene minutes later, along with a highway patrolman. They were prompted by their training that changed after the Columbine High School massacre: Don’t wait. Confront the shooter.


“One subject advised she didn’t see him [the gunman] come out,” Helus told a dispatcher, according to audio obtained by The Mercury News. “We’re making entry.”
A few seconds passed. “We got multiple people down,” Helus said. “We need a lot of ambulances.”
More time ticked by. Another officer radioed: “Be advised there are multiple shots being fired, the back northwest area.”

A burst of gunfire raked Helus multiple times.
The patrolman with him rescued Helus “out of the line of gunfire,” Dean told reporters early Thursday morning, and helped secure the scene for more officers to arrive.
Ex-Marine kills 12 in US bar, hurling smoke bombs before opening fire
Dean announced the deaths of 11 people in the news conference.
His voice cracked. Helus, he said, was the 12th. He died at a hospital – a year before he was set to retire with 30 years of service.

“He was totally committed, he gave his all, and tonight, as I told his wife, he died a hero,” Dean said. “He went in to save lives – to save other people.”
At a second briefing, Dean said the Ventura County community had “lost a hero. It’s lost a great human being.”
California shooting: some inside bar had survived Las Vegas massacre
US President Donald Trump praised the “great bravery shown by police,” adding in a tweet: “God bless all of the victims and families of the victims.” Trump later ordered the flag to be flown at half-staff.
Helus was a resident of nearby Moorpark and is survived by a wife and son, Dean said. Helus was an avid outdoorsman who traversed the serene waters of the San Joaquin River. On some backcountry trips, he would see more bald eagles and deer than people, he said on Facebook.
“I’ve probably had 200 bear and 3 mountain lion encounters,” Helus told a Facebook friend who jokingly asked if he were part animal.

Helus did what he was trained to do, Dean said. The 1999 killings at Columbine transformed the way law enforcement respond to active shooter incidents, he explained. Before then, officers and first responders secured a perimeter and waited.
Now training has emphasised aggressive pursuit of suspects before they kill more people or target those already wounded.
“When you get to a scene, and there’s two of you, or even just one of you and there’s shooting going on, you go in,” Dean said.
The gunfire briefly quieted, the sheriff said, as people scrambled to hide in restrooms and in attics.
Investigators were still working to determine the motive and other details.
“I saw three people get shot by him,” said Teylor Whittler, 19, describing the shooter. She was raised in a military family and is familiar with firearms, she told Fox News.
“He had perfect form,” Whittler said. “He looked like he knew what he was doing.”
Authorities identified the gunman as ex-Marine 28-year-old Ian David Long.
In addition to the dead, Dean estimated that there were upwards of 10 to 12 shooting victims who were “rescued from the scene and taken to local hospitals.” Additional victims with minor injuries fled the scene on their own, he added.
Dean, whose own retirement as sheriff is effective on Friday, choked up again when he was asked how the department would honour Helus.
Deputies, he said, will close down roads for a morning procession, where they will escort Helus’s body from a hospital to the county medical examiner’s office.
“It’s so tragic losing Ron,” Dean said. “We go to the gym together, work out together. It’s horrific and terrible and it saddens our hearts.”


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Gun violence in the US

California mass shooting: slain sheriff’s deputy Ron Helus had been due to retire after 30 years of duty

Ventura County Sheriff's Department employee Mary McConville (L) watches as a motorcade procession transports the body of Sheriff's Sergeant Ron Helus, the first victim named in the mass shooting at a country bar in Thousand Oaks, California, November 8, 2018 - The gunman who killed 12, including Helus, 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)

Firefighters salute the procession as the hearse carrying the casket of Ventura County Sheriff Sgt. Ron Helus, who was killed yesterday in the Thousand Oaks mass shooting, as it heads north on the 101 Freeway headed to Ventura. (Al Seib /Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Law enforcement officers salute to the hearse carrying the body of Ventura County Sheriff Sgt. Ron Helus, who was shot and killed in a mass shooting at a bar, in a procession in Thousand Oaks, California, U.S. November 8, 2018. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu

Mourners watch the procession as the hearse carrying the casket of Ventura County Sheriff’s Sergeant Ron Helus passes them on Thursday in California. Photo: TNS

California gunman Ian David Long was ex-Marine machine-gunner – and sheriff says he might have suffered PTSD

Suspected California gunman Ian David Long. Photo: Facebook

People comfort each other after a mass shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, U.S. November 8, 2018. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

This 2017 photo from the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows Ian David Long. Authorities said the Marine combat veteran opened fire Wednesday evening, Nov. 7, 2018, at a country music bar in Southern California, killing multiple people before apparently taking his own life. (California Department of Motor Vehicles via AP)

Carnage in California as ex-Marine shoots 12 dead, after hurling smoke bombs into crowded bar

People comfort each other after a mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks late Wednesday night. Photo: TNS

Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean briefs reporters at the intersection of US 101 freeway and the Moorpark Rad exit as police vehicles close off the area responding to a shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California on November 8, 2018. - Twelve people, including a police sergeant, were shot dead in a shooting at a nighttclub close to Los Angeles, police said Thursday. All the victims were killed inside the bar in the suburb of Thousand Oaks late on Wednesday, including the officer who had been called to the scene, Sheriff Geoff Dean told reporters. The gunman was also dead at the scene, Dean added. The bar was hosting a college country music night. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP)

In this image made from aerial video, police vehicles line a road in the vicinity of a shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, early Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. Authorities say there were multiple injuries _ including one officer _ after a man opened fire in Southern California bar late Wednesday. (KABC via AP)

In this image made from aerial video, police vehicles block an intersection in the vicinity of a shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, early Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. Authorities say there were multiple injuries _ including one officer _ after a man opened fire in Southern California bar late Wednesday. (KABC via AP)

In this image taken from video a victim is treated near the scene of a shooting, Wednesday evening, Nov. 7, 2018, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. A hooded gunman dressed entirely in black opened fire on a crowd at a country dance bar holding a weekly "college night" in Southern California, killing multiple people and sending hundreds fleeing including some who used barstools to break windows and escape, authorities said Thursday. The gunman was later found dead at the scene. (RMG News via AP)

People comfort each other as they stand near the scene Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where a gunman opened fire Wednesday inside a country dance bar crowded with hundreds of people on "college night," wounding multiple people including a deputy who rushed to the scene. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Potential witnesses sit near the scene Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where a gunman opened fire Wednesday inside a crowded country music bar. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

California mass shooting: some inside bar had survived Las Vegas massacre, friends say

Mourners react outside a reception centre for families of victims of a mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, on Thursday. Photo: AP

Madison Fuller (middle) of Thousand Oaks reacts as she watches from an overpass as a procession for the body of Sergeant Ron Helus, who died in a shooting incident at a Thousand Oaks bar, drives down Ventura HIghway 101 in Thousand Oaks, California, U.S. November 8, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Mourners react outside a reception centre for families of victims of a mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, U.S. November 8, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Thayer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

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Sergeant Ron Helus was on a call to his wife when he was alerted to the shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill


California mass shooting: slain sheriff’s deputy Ron Helus had been due to retire after 30 years of duty

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Sergeant Ron Helus was on a call to his wife when he was alerted to the shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill

Sergeant Ron Helus was on a call to his wife when he was alerted to the shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill