Some Cal Poly students are sharing their stories of the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks following Wednesday night’s mass shooting.
Two students KSBY spoke to on Thursday describe the venue as a fun place to hang out with friends, especially on Wednesday nights.
Learning of the tragedy hits close to home.
“When you’re there over the summer, the line is out the door to get in,” said Kayla Berenson. “It’s just a very, like, happy place.”
She used to live in the area and she would go to Borderline every week.
“It was just a place where I could go and dance and have fun, listen to country music and just have a good time and it’s just so sad to know that other people were there trying to do the same thing and they couldn’t do that,” she said.
She learned of the tragedy soon after it happened.
“I saw someone posted about it and I immediately called my mom and was just like shaking and crying because if it had happened over summer, it could have easily been me and my friends,” Berenson explained.
Another Cal Poly student and KSBY intern Kallyn Hobmann is from Thousand Oaks.
“You can’t even begin to grasp that it happened,” she told us.
She goes to Borderline whenever she’s visiting home.
She found out about the tragedy Thursday morning from her mom.
“She texted me saying, ‘mass shooting at Borderline’ and that immediately woke me up, like, I couldn’t believe… I had to read her text like five times because I didn’t quite grasp what she was saying,” Hobmann said.
She’s been to Borderline so many times for the past five years she says that it’s scary to think she could have been there, too.
“It almost feels numb in a way, like, I almost don’t know how to feel,” she said.
Everyone that she knew was there Wednesday evening is okay.
“To imagine that our little bubble – we call it a bubble because it’s so small – that it is now a national tragedy is unreal,” Hobmann concluded.
“I know that it’s a place that is a big part of my heart and holds a special place in a lot of people’s hearts as well, so it’s just awful to know this happened,” Berenson added.
Berenson says she has several other friends from Cal Poly who are from Thousand Oaks. It’s unclear at this point if they knew any of the victims.
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong released a statement saying in part, “Like you, I struggle to find some sort of clarity or understanding in response to actions that are simply senseless, utterly inhumane and purely evil. I want you to know that I’m here to support you.”
