'This is life now.' A Year After the Borderline Bar Mass Shooting, Families Reveal How They Move Forward

They wanted to dance.

They wanted to take a break from work, or school.

In one of the safest cities in the United States, it didn’t seem like a bar they’d have to worry about.

It’s been a year since the lives of 12 families were shattered Nov. 7, 2018, when a Marine combat veteran of the war in Afghanistan opened fire on a the crowded Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks. 

Twelve people were killed, and then the gunman killed himself. 

Those who lived, 248 survivors, would have to learn how to move on from the tragedy and chaos in the year that followed. 

“It’s as if you have your heart ripped out and there’s a hole… it will stay that way,” Susan Orfanos said.

“We’re still grieving,” Jason Coffman said. “There’s a lot of people who haven’t come to cope it with it yet. Then there’s people like myself who have come to realize this is life now. This is the way it’s got to be.”

We’re following the families’ stories and checking in with them a year later, to hear about the struggles, kindness of strangers, and what life is like now.

View more coverage and stories:

• Gallery: Learn more about the victims here.
• Portraits of the Fallen: These Are the Victims Killed in the Borderline Bar Shooting
• One Year Later, Army Veteran Recalls Friends’ Heroic Last Moments During Borderline Shooting
• Events This Week: How Residents are Honoring Those Slain in the Borderline Bar Shooting One Year Later

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The Citizen