At least 12 people have been killed and around a dozen more injured in a mass shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, police have said.
A sheriff’s sergeant died after being shot and the gunman was found dead inside the Borderline Bar & Grill, Ventura County sheriff Geoff Dean confirmed.
At least 30 shots were fired, police told the Los Angeles Times. Witnesses said a man fired several shots from a handgun before throwing smoke bombs into the crowded bar. A man who said he was in the bar told ABC news he saw a man shoot into the crowd.
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“He is absolutely a hero. He leaves behind a wife and a son, he was a 54-year-old resident of Moore Park, he epitomized what a cop does, he was a cop’s cop," Mr Kuredjian told local outlet KABC. "When he heard the gunfire he ran in, he ran in and no doubt saved others from being victimized. A young man who was inside the club came up to me and said, ‘You know what? He saved additional people from being victims.’ That’s what cops do. That’s what he did.”
"I heard what I thought was a balloon pop," 21-year-old Taylor von Molt told CNN.
"I was confused because we didn’t have any balloons at the time... I turned around and saw him fire his weapon a couple of times and I ran to the nearest exit and tripped and fell on the way."
"This is a weekly thing (and) even though it's become a weekly thing, nobody does anything, especially the Congress where I work," he said.
"35,000 Americans dead a year as a result of gun violence and Congress can't even find its way to studying the problem".
Representative Jim Himes, whose home state of Connecticut endured the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, has attacked the lack of action on gun control after hearing about the mass shooting in California.
He told CNN: "I’m embarrassed to say ... my first thought was, ‘here we go again, it’s this week’s mass shooting,' and that’s a really hard way to think about this. I contrast where we are today with how we all felt about Sandy Hook."
Cole Knapp is a student at Moorpark College and was inside the Borderline Bar & Grill when the shooting began.
He said he tried to get as many people to cover as he could. He said he fled through an exit door to a closed patio where he told people "everybody get over the fence as quickly as you can," and followed them over.
Then he said he found a highway patrol officer nearby who just happened to pull someone over, and he screamed to him, "there's a shooter in there!"
Mr Knapp said the officer "was kind of in disbelief," then saw he was serious. He said he has friends who who have not been accounted for.
Nineteen-year-old Tayler Whitler said she was dancing and her friends were at a table by the door as the gunman opened fire.
Nineteen-year-old Erika Sigman found herself hiding with a group of strangers, and they were holding her hands.
She saud "there is a lot of bad in this world, but there is also a lot of good and people will help".
"Ron was a hardworking, dedicated sheriff's sergeant who was totally committed," Mr Dean said.
"And tonight, as I told his wife, he died a hero because he went in to save lives."
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