Actress Tamera Mowry-Housley’s Niece Alaina Dies in Thousand Oaks Shooting
Actress and The Real host Tamera Mowry-Housley's niece, Alaina Housley, is among the 12 dead following the Wednesday night (Nov. 7) shooting at Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Calif. On Twitter, Mowry-Housley and her husband, journalist Adam Housley, were helping search for the young woman on Thursday (Nov. 8), before issuing a statement confirming her death.
"Our hearts are broken. We just learned that our niece Alaina was one of the victims of last night’s shooting at Borderline bar in Thousand Oaks," the couple says via a representative (quote via USA Today). "Alaina was an incredible young woman with so much life ahead of her and we are devastated that her life was cut short in this manner. We thank everyone for your prayers and ask for privacy at this time."
According to a Thursday morning (Nov. 8) tweet from Alaina Housley's suitemate, a woman named Ashley, Housley was at the Borderline Bar & Grill when the shooting began. The Pepperdine University freshman was wearing denim shorts, a blue flannel shirt and sneakers, according to Ashley.
Tamera Mowry-Housley replied to Ashley's tweet at 7AM ET on Thursday, asking the young woman to contact her. Ashley replied that she had already been in touch with Adam Housley, and that while Alaina was still missing, the other friends she'd been with were all safe.
Photos From Outside the Thousand Oaks Shooting
On his own Twitter account, Adam Housley wrote around 9:30AM ET that he was "staying positive and praying and hoping and wishing there was more I could do." According to Los Angels Times reporter Andrea Castillo, Housley had been to the Los Robles Regional Medical Center looking for Alaina, and that "her Apple Watch and iPhone still showed her location on the dance floor."
"Housley said two of Alaina’s suitemates jumped through a broken window to escape and are at a hospital with major glass wounds. As they ran away from the bar, someone screamed 'Hey! Get the [sic] down on the ground!' They told Housley they believe it was the gunman," Castillo relays on Twitter. "But they kept running toward houses near Los Robles Greens golf course, where they got help from residents."
Tamera Mowry-Housley's sister, actress Tia Mowry, had been on her own social media accounts asking for prayers as well. The twin sisters are best known for their starring roles in the '90s sitcom Sister Sister.
Country Stars Offer Condolences Following Borderline Bar & Grill Shooting
The Borderline Bar & Grill was hosting "college country night" when a tall, white male, dressed in all black, entered and began shooting around 11:20PM local time; the shooter, 28-year-old Ian David Long, was killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Long was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and although his motive is not known at the time of publication, he was known to police due to past minor infractions.
Some of those in attendance were also at the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in October 2017. Nicholas Champion tells CBS that he and "probably 50 or 60 others who were in the building at the same time as me tonight" were also at the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nev., at which 58 people died when a gunman opened fire on the crowd from the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel.
According to its website, the Borderline Bar & Grill is "Ventura County's Largest Country Dance Hall & Live Music Venue." Borderline has been open since the late 1980s, when it was located in Malibu, Calif.; it moved to Thousand Oaks in 1993. Artists such as Lee Brice, Tyler Farr and more have performed at Borderline over the years.
Thousand Oaks is located about 40 miles west of Los Angeles, and was recently ranked as the third-safest city in the United States by Niche.com, which analyzes "crime rates for murder, assault, rape, burglary and other crime statistics by city ... based on data from the FBI and U.S. Census."
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