NOEL KING, HOST:
Thousand Oaks, Calif., is a city northwest of Los Angeles. A few hours ago, a gunman there opened fire at a bar and grill filled with college students. There are multiple fatalities, and at least 11 people were injured in the attack. NPR's Kirk Siegler is at the scene. Hi. Kirk.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: Good morning.
KING: So what do we know so far?
SIEGLER: Well, as you can imagine, it's still a very active crime scene. Information has been slow to come in. There's a lot of hearsay and innuendo and rumors so far, but we haven't been able to confirm that much because this just happened a couple of hours ago. I'm standing just across the street from the Borderline Bar, right underneath the 101 freeway. I've been watching a number of emergency vehicles stream by and some ambulances. Like you said, we were told for sure that there are at least 11 injured in there, the - inside the bar. Ventura County Sheriff spokesman Garo Kuredjian just told us a short while ago that the authorities have the place contained, that there is no threat to the surrounding community. That was one of the big concerns here early on, as you can imagine, as this was unfolding - trying to figure out what was going on. So I'm looking at a pretty still dramatic scene and unfolding and, you know, a large law enforcement presence, as you can imagine.
KING: Well, as we said, it was college night there, and we've been seeing these images on television of very, very young people. You talked to a couple of young women who were there. What did they tell you?
SIEGLER: Well, I talked to Erika Sigman (ph) just as she had gotten out and reunited with some friends. She was very emotional, as you can imagine.
KING: Yeah.
SIEGLER: She's a college student at Cal State Channel Islands, just a bit up the road from here. She was in the bar when the shooting started. Let's hear from her now.
ERIKA SIGMAN: I heard something go off - obviously, the gunshots - and I realized that it was not music very, very quickly. And I heard everyone scream, get down. I heard people start saying, run. So I booked it to my car with a group of people because I lost them. I wasn't - we all kind of didn't find each other, so - till later - and hid behind my car for a little bit. It stopped, and then there was a second round that went off.
SIEGLER: And you can just hear, Noel, there, Erika Sigman - a 19-year-old - very shaken up...
KING: Yeah.
SIEGLER: ...And told us that, you know, this is her safe place. She grew up in Thousand Oaks. She calls the bar, like, a neighborhood place that she always goes. And she was just exasperated that a shooting could happen here - just another shooting in America.
KING: Kirk, we've seen some confused reports on whether the gunman was among the fatalities. Do the police know that yet, and do they know anything about this person?
SIEGLER: We don't have anything more to report on that at this time. The situation, as I said, is changing by the minute. We are getting regular updates and briefings from the Ventura County sheriff and the public information officer out here. We haven't been able to confirm - there were some early reports that there may have been more than one gunman. No one is confirming that at this point either. And we're just still waiting to see what's happening. We know that there are, unfortunately, multiple fatalities in there.
KING: A lot to be determined. NPR's Kirk Siegler, thank you so much.
SIEGLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
