HISTORY WITH POLICE

Dean told reporters that officers had gone to Long’s home in April in response to a disturbance call and found him to be agitated. Mental health specialists talked with Long and determined that no further action was necessary.

About 60 people, many of them crying, gathered at a teen center in Thousand Oaks waiting to learn if their loved ones were among the dead.

“They’re just hoping against all odds in a sense,” Thousand Oaks City Councilman Rob McCoy said at a news conference outside the teen center. “The longer they wait it appears to be inevitable to many of them and you just hug them.”

President Donald Trump, who has resisted a surge in calls for tougher gun control measures since 17 students and staff were shot dead at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida earlier this year, ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at public buildings and grounds.

U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said lawmakers would get to work on legislation including universal background checks when the House convenes in January with a Democratic majority.

“We must find a way to stop the senseless and many times preventable killings that are robbing our country of innocent lives,” he said on Twitter.

Thousand Oaks, a leafy, sprawling suburb, was named the third safest city in the United States for 2018 by the website Niche.

“I’ve learned it doesn’t matter what community you’re in,” Dean told reporters when asked if he was surprised this happened in Thousand Oaks. “It doesn’t matter how safe your community is. It can happen anywhere.”

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