A team of student journalists was among those delivering live coverage from the scene of a deadly mass shooting at a Southern California bar where some of their fellow students were partying as the horrific attack unfolded.
Reporters with the student paper Pepperdine Graphic of Pepperdine University in Malibu shared harrowing footage and interviews with victims and witnesses outside the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks early Thursday, where authorities said 13 people died, including the shooter.
Pepperdine reporter Kayiu Wong tweeted that she and colleague Araceli Crescencio had been reporting from the scene since 1 a.m., local time.
She later reported that a freshman from her school remained missing as of 6:30 a.m.
Madeleine Carr, the paper’s editor, told CNN on Thursday morning that she was also waiting to hear back from some friends who had gone to the bar to attend College Country night.
She said she had planned to go with them but stayed behind to do some schoolwork instead. Around 11:20 p.m., authorities said a lone gunman began opening fire at the scene.
“We haven’t heard back from everyone,” she told CNN. “It was a group of girls that went, and some of them we haven’t been able to reach still.”
Although the tragedy hit so close to home — Pepperdine has confirmed that some of its students were at the scene — Crescencio was busy interviewing people and posting live video to Facebook.
In one such video, she interviewed Tim Dominguez, who recalled escaping the bar with his son as others lost their lives around them, including a responding sheriff’s deputy.
“A lot of people were just running around, young kids, and I just heard the gunshots going even as I was running to the car,” Dominguez said while fighting back tears. “It’s the most sad thing that I’ve ever experienced in my life. It’s unfair, it’s not right, and I’m just so sorry for the families who are hurt and who lost their lives.”