T.O. officials, residents, scholar don't believe Borderline shooting will define city

Thousand Oaks City Council member Al Adam says the city isn’t going to let the Borderline mass shooting define it.

“I know Thousand Oaks is going to be a stronger city,” he said at a community vigil held less than 24 hours after a former Marine opened fire Nov. 7 in the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, killing 12 people before turning the gun on himself. “We’re not going to let this define us.”

Yet, the shooting turned the nation’s eyes on Thousand Oaks, an upscale, affluent city considered to be one of the safest in the country. The country’s interest was piqued even more when, less than 24 hours after the massacre, the deadly Woolsey Fire and the smaller Hill Fire broke out and began ravaging the east and west sides of the city.

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Many people throughout the country who had never heard of Thousand Oaks, now have, and not for a good reason. The Borderline massacre is one of America’s worst single-day mass shootings. 

‘Community came together’

“I recognize that unfortunately, Thousand Oaks is now on a list of cities that have suffered mass shootings,” Mayor Andy Fox conceded last week.

But, like Adam, others in the community and a criminologist at California Lutheran University, Fox doesn’t think that will define Thousand Oaks.

“I don’t believe it’s going to tarnish the city’s legacy at all,” he said. “In fact, I couldn’t be prouder of how the community has come together, not just the first responders and, of course, the city staff, but everyday folks who live in Thousand Oaks.

“Both in attendance of memorial services, the amount of donations to the VCCF (Ventura County Community Foundation) fund, people lining up to give blood the first couple of days after the Borderline incident, and just the outpouring of caring that I’m receiving through emails and messages from people all over the community and outside the community,” he said.

MORE:Museum of Ventura County documenting fires, Borderline shooting

Fox said he realizes that yes, many people across the country now, for the first time, know the name of Thousand Oaks because of the shooting and the fires.

“But when they think about Thousand Oaks, they think ‘OK, Thousand Oaks suffered a horrific incident, but as a community, they came together,’” he said. “You have to look at the whole story in its entirety. We honored those families and at the same time, we managed one of the largest brush fires in the state’s history, virtually 24 hours after the Borderline incident.”

Fox retired in July from the Los Angeles Fire Department, where, in a 38-year career, he rose to become an assistant chief. He’s also stepping down from the Thousand Oaks City Council after 24 years.

The Woolsey Fire in Ventura and Los Angeles counties killed three people, destroyed 1,643 structures and burned 96,949 acres. The smaller Hill Fire, limited to Ventura County, destroyed two structures and burned 4,531 acres. Both fires have been fully contained.

“So to me, the real story for the country is the resiliency and the compassion of the people who live in the Conejo Valley, and specifically Thousand Oaks,” Fox said. “What the city did in the face of adversity and how we were able to overcome it. Although for the families who lost loved ones, life will never be the same again. We will always have to recognize that.” 

Even so, Thousand Oaks remains one of the safest communities in the nation, Fox said.

“I state that as a fact,” he said. “There is no amount of security you can have when you have an individual who was obviously very troubled and had an intent on hurting people. They live in every community in our country.”

Mass shootings commonplace

Molly George, an associate professor at California Lutheran University’s Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice in Thousand Oaks, agrees the city will not necessarily be negatively associated with the Borderline shooting in the long term.

She cited a few reasons, including the Woolsey and Hill fires, “which diverted local and national attention from the Borderline incident as the news coverage focused on evacuations and damages caused by the fires. These critical incidents ... (made) it difficult to fully process or grieve for the Borderline incident.

MORE:Expert says mass shootings don't have to be new normal

“Further, the shooting in Thousand Oaks seems to have faded from the national spotlight because the media cycle has become so rapid and mass shootings have sadly become commonplace,” she said. “Additional mass shootings have sadly happened subsequent to the Borderline incident,” including one at Chicago’s Mercy Hospital on Nov. 19 that killed three people.

Like Fox, George said, “My hope is that Thousand Oaks is remembered for how we respond to the Borderline event.”

She cited the response of some young people in Parkland, Florida, to the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a high school there that killed 17 students and staff members.

“The young survivor-activists from Parkland (who are pushing for gun law reforms) have garnered much more attention than the specific violent event or perpetrator,” she said.

T.O. Strong

Some residents who The Star spoke to at a huge community memorial for the Borderline victims said that while they believed Thousand Oaks will always be associated with the shooting, it won’t define the city.

“I don’t think so,” said lifelong Thousand Oaks resident Paula Richan, 56, with tears in her eyes as she took in the memorial at the corner of Moorpark Road and Rolling Oaks Drive. She was a friend of one of those killed, Sean Adler, 48, who was working security at the Borderline the night of the shooting. “I think if anything, it’s made Thousand Oaks a stronger community. 

“Everybody calls this town Mayberry because nothing like this ever happens here,” said Richan, who works at the Ventura County Credit Union. “But it’s just amazing how people have pulled together.”

The community pride slogan “T.O. Strong” has emerged in the wake of the shooting and fires, and the city has put up a few electronic signs on major streets displaying it.

Adam Leavitt, 36, who was born and raised in Thousand Oaks and now lives in Moorpark, said he believes the public will always link Thousand Oaks to the shooting.

“I don’t know if people (across the country) will define Thousand Oaks by the shooting, but I think they will always be connected” like the sites of other deadly mass shootings are, he said 

MORE:Days after shooting, mourners drawn to Borderline victims memorial

“You know, nobody knew what the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was, but now you do,” said Leavitt, a baseball coach at Moorpark High School. “Aurora, Colorado, with the movie theater there, that’s kind of the first thing you think of. Columbine High School, 20-plus years later, that’s the first thing that comes to your mind.”

Ann Farley, 61, who has lived in Thousand Oaks for 21 years, agreed.

“It’s never going to be forgotten,” the purchasing manager said. “I mean it’s just like Columbine or San Bernardino,” the site of another mass shooting. “It’s always going to be linked.”

“I just hope people just don’t think of Thousand Oaks as, ‘This is where a multiple shooting took place,’ or that it changes people’s attitudes about the town,” she said. “It’s still a beautiful city, and people still love living here.”

Craig Duswalt, 56, who has lived in Thousand Oaks for six years, said he agrees with Fox that the city’s legacy will be the way the community came together in the wake of the shooting and the fires.

“Because the shooting and the fires were combined, it put Thousand Oaks on the map,” said Duswalt, a motivational speaker. “But I don’t think that’s a negative. Yeah, a negative for the shooting and the fires, obviously, but I think it brought the community together as a whole, and that’s a positive that maybe the rest of the country can learn from and just remember what happened here.”