COLLEGE SCENEThe Borderline is popular with university students and on Wednesday night hosted College Country Night. California Lutheran University, located about 5 miles from the bar, canceled classes on Thursday while Pepperdine University, about 20 miles away, planned a prayer service.Bar patron Cole Knapp, 19, told Reuters he saw the gunman walk in and stop at the counter, apparently paying a cover charge. Then Knapp heard gunfire and saw a young woman at the counter shot repeatedly."It took a couple of seconds for people to realize what was going on and once that happened it was just utter chaos," he said.Knapp said he first helped people hide behind a pool table and then fled to the bar's outdoor smoking patio, where people were unaware of the shooting.Once outside, Knapp said, he and a friend helped carry a gunshot victim to an ambulance."I'm just reeling, riding on adrenaline right now," he said. "It's just kind of unbelievable that somebody would want to come to a place I care about and hurt people that I care about."Thousand Oaks, with a population of about 127,000, is a leafy, sprawling suburb 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."Thousand Oaks Mayor Andy Fox urged people to donate blood to help the wounded.Ventura County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Ron Helus, a 29-year veteran, was one of the first law enforcement officials to reach the Borderline at about 11:30 p.m. PST (0730 GMT). He was shot in the bar and died at a hospital, Dean said.A statement from the sheriff’s office said there would be a procession in honor of Helus on Thursday morning. "Ron's selfless, heroic actions will never be forgotten," the statement read. He is survived by a wife and son.'HORRIFIC SCENE'Asked what the scene inside the bar was like, Dean said, "Like ... hell." Earlier he had described it as "a horrific scene in there. There is blood everywhere and the suspect is part of that."Dean, who was speaking on his last day before retirement, said he had been told 150 to 200 people were in the Borderline at the time. "It could have been much, much worse," he said.Dean estimated 10 to 15 people, including one with a gunshot wound, had gone to hospitals. He said he believed their injuries were minor, and that most were likely injured as they escaped, some by breaking windows.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."Jennifer Avalos, 20, held back tears as she left the center, where she had hoped to learn the fate of her friend, Noel Sparks, 21, who had been at Borderline. They had texted each before the shooting but Sparks did not come home.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.Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.