This article was updated.
LOS ANGELES — After a shooting spree late Nov. 7 at a
country-music bar in Thousand Oaks, about 40 miles from the heart of Los
Angeles, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles asked people to "pray
hard" for the victims and their families.
Thirteen people, including the suspected gunman and a 29-year
veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, died in shooting at the
Borderline Bar & Grill on what was college night, with lessons on
country two-step dancing.
The bar is popular with students at nearby California Lutheran
University, and also attracts students from Pepperdine University in Malibu,
Moorpark College in Moorpark and California State University-Channel Islands in
Camarillo.
"Like many of you, I woke this morning to news of the
horrible violence last night at the Borderline Grill in Thousand Oaks,"
Archbishop Gomez said in his Nov. 8 statement.
"Let us pray hard for all the families, for those who were
murdered and those who were injured, and in a special way for the heroic
officer, Sgt. Ron Helus, who lost his life defending people in the attack. May
God grant perpetual light to those who have died and may he bring comfort to
their loved ones and peace to our community."
In a Nov. 8 Tweet, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge said, “I am deeply
saddened to learn about the fatal shooting in California. I ask all in the
Diocese of Arlington to join me in praying for the victims, their families, and
survivors of this senseless act of evil. Mary Queen of Peace, pray for us.”
Cardinal
Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops, issued a statement Nov. 8 calling for the enactment of reasonable
measures to end gun violence.
"We
must bring this tragedy to the Lord in prayer," Cardinal DiNardo said. "This new incident of gun
violence strikes just as the funerals are barely complete from the last mass
shooting. More innocent lives are lost because of one individual and his
ability to procure weapons and commit violence.The bishops continue to
ask that public policies be supported that would enact reasonable gun measures
to help curb this mad loss of life.
"Only
love can truly defeat evil," he said. "Love begets love, and peace begets peace, but
anger, hatred and violence breed more of the same."
Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said Nov. 8 that the suspected
gunman, Ian David Long, had legally purchased the weapon used in the shooting.
It came less than two weeks after a gunman murdered 11 worshippers in a
Pittsburgh synagogue, which was the largest mass murder in the United States
since 17 were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland,
Florida, last Feb. 14.
According to the Associated Press, after Helus was shot multiple
times and dragged outside the bar by his partner — he died early Nov. 8 at a
nearby hospital — scores of police assembled outside and burst in later to find
Long and 11 others dead. Long had been wearing a black hood during the spree.