This isn’t official from police, but based on what TMZ has learned about Ian Long it sounds like he may have been seeking revenge:
TMZ – The shooter who terrorized college students at Borderline Bar & Grill was shockingly on social media as he shot a dozen people dead, and, based on what we now know, it sounds like they were revenge killings.
Law enforcement sources tell us Ian Long held a gun in one hand and his phone in the other, posting messages on his Instagram Story during Wednesday night’s massacre.
Our sources say investigators discovered the messages on Long’s page several hours after the shooting and contacted Instagram to delete his page. We don’t know precisely what he was saying, but it appears he had a grudge he was carrying out.
A former classmate of Long’s tells TMZ, Long was bullied in high school. She says his fellow students made fun of him because he had a lazy eye, and it affected him deeply. The classmate says a lot of those students go to that bar on Wednesday nights. She says he knew some of the people who teased him would be there.
We’re told he was a regular at the bar, usually keeping to himself … grabbing a beer and sitting at the bar.
As we reported, Long served in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011 as a decorated member of the Marines. His classmate says Long suffered serious PTSD after his tour and tried to get help from therapists and doctors. We’re told he also reached out to the military for help, but his mental health was in bad shape.
10 years is a long time to hold a grudge. I know teenagers can be very cruel, but to resort to a mass shooting as revenge so long afterward would most certainly indicate some serious mental issues or intense hatred.
Again, this isn’t official.
TMZ also has pictures of the suspect. We won’t be posting them here, but you can click over and see if them if you like. He was a decorated military vet, as has been reported.
It’s also being reported than when he committed the massacre at Thousand Oaks, he used smoke bombs.