The authorities said they still didn’t know much about the victims or the suspect after the shooting at a country music venue near Los Angeles.
The police and rescue workers responded to reports that several people were shot late Wednesday at a country and western dance venue that was holding an event for college students in Thousand Oaks, Calif., officials said.
The shooting was said to have taken place at the Borderline Bar and Grill. The Ventura County Fire Department said that “multiple injuries” had been reported.
“At 20 past 11 there were shots fired at the Borderline Bar and Grill,” said Capt. Garo Kuredjian, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. “As deputies responded, they also heard shots. Additional units from CHIPs and Simi Valley and the F. B. I. responded. At this point, we have no information about the victims or suspect.”
Captain Kuredjian said he believed that about 100 people had been inside the bar at the time of the shooting.
The venue’s website says that for a quarter century, it “has stood as the Ventura County’s largest country dance hall and live music venue,” with more than 2,500 square feet of open dance space. Its original location was in Malibu, Calif., to the south.
The venue was holding a college country music night on Wednesday night.
Video from the scene by ABC7.com showed rescue workers attending to one victim.
A witness interviewed by ABC7.com said that the gunman had walked up to the entrance to the bar, shot a security guard and a cashier, and deployed a smoke bomb.
“I just started hearing these big pops,” said the witness, a man who was not identified. “The gunman was throwing smoke grenades.”
“He just kept firing,” the man said, adding that “people were trying to get out the window” to run away from the gunman, who was wearing a hat and a black jacket and had “a big handgun.”
Video from the scene showed police units swarming the area. It was not clear whether the gunman was still on the loose.
Thousand Oaks, a relatively affluent city in Ventura County, is about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles and not far from wealthy enclaves like Calabasas and Malibu.
