Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, the site of a mass shooting that left 12 people dead in 2018, will likely be demolished next month at the request of the property’s owners, city officials said.
The building, which has housed some kind of restaurant that has been a gathering spot for residents for nearly 50 years, withstood the massacre and later a prolonged shuttering as the coronavirus closed bars and restaurants throughout California. But the city says the owners no longer wish to maintain the building.
“It was a place where people gathered for friendship, companionship, love and then, ultimately, terrible tragedy,” Thousand Oaks Mayor Claudia Bill-de la Peña said by phone Friday. “Once this building is gone, it will be painful for our community — not only for the Borderline families and survivors, but for the community at large.”
In November 2018, a former U.S. Marine opened fire inside the packed country music dance club, killing 11 patrons. A Ventura County sheriff’s sergeant who responded to the shooting also died in the gun battle. The lone gunman, who had been diagnosed with PTSD, shot himself in the head.
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