A Man Recounts Surviving a Mass Shooting

A Man Recounts Surviving a Mass Shooting

January 9, 2025 • 18 min

Episode Description

On this episode of Our American Stories, a mass shooting took place on November 7, 2018, in Thousand Oaks, California, at the Borderline Bar & Grill, a country-western bar frequented by college students. 13 people were killed. Tyler Spady is here to share his story of survival and hope.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American stories, and every once in a
while we just tell great stories about ordinary Americans doing
extraordinary things. A mass shooting took place in November seventh,
twenty eighteen, in Thousand Oaks, California, at the Borderline Bar
in Grille, the country western bar frequented by college students.

(00:31):
Thirteen people were killed. Tyler Spady was one of the
roughly two hundred and fifty patrons there on that faithful night.
Here he is to share his story of survival and.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hope the week before the shooting.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
It just gives kind of a story to what Borderline was.
It was a Halloween night where everyone goes and dresses
up and you have costume contents. And that night I
went as the little Boy and up in the full
boy Scout uniform that I borrowed from my neighbor, and

(01:11):
my buddy Jesse went is Donald Trump.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
And the whole place was full of people.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
In costumes, and my dad was in attendance, and my
sister was in attendance, and everyone was hanging out, playing,
playing pool, creating friendships, line dancing, and having a good
time like you usually do at this place. And it
wasn't just a bar many people when you think about

(01:38):
in the news, just think about it like that. But
it was an eighteen plus place where people would go
to socialize.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
In the college years.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
It was a really amazing place where I had been
going since I was eighteen years old, so five years
prior to this happening, and knew just about every person
who regularly went, and especially my friend group of about
twenty people that would go regularly in playpool and do

(02:09):
the things that college students do. But saying that this
even happened in this place, you know, Venture County is
one of the safest counties in the country according to
the FBI, and my dad knowing these things, this was
a safe place where he could trust his daughter and
his son to go when we were eighteen, and it

(02:31):
was clean, safe, fun where you're never gonna get in
a bad situation.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
And I mean he had prepared us for something like this.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
We all had bulletproof plates that he had bought us
from a place called Defender Body Armor in Camarillo. So
going into that night, it was like any other night.
We me and my buddy John was moving to Texas
to become a firefighter, so he had come over to
the house and we were going to go out and

(03:01):
see him off. And my sister, who was in Montana
a few days prior, on her way home from the airport,
was in a car accident, so she wasn't able to attend.
But it was an off night because the previous week
was Halloween, so people were kind of burnt out from
it and they didn't want to go, so we weren't

(03:22):
able to get any any of the people that usually come.
I am thankful to God every day that actually wasn't
able to come, because I don't know what the outcome
would have been having my sister there, if I would
have made it, or if she would have. So I'm
very thankful that that happened, and it kind of gives
perspective on this whole thing that every single thing in

(03:43):
your life happens for a reason, and it's a good
life outcome that I've taken from it. So we got
there and saw my friends that I'd grown up with
my whole life in it out front. So we kind
of joined groups and went into the other a group
of about fifteen people and started the night, and it

(04:04):
was a good night like any other. We got there
about ten fifteen and started hanging out with everyone and
taking pictures and dancing line dancing and socializing and creating friendships.
And then about eleven twenty, my ex girlfriend, who I

(04:25):
hadn't talked to in a couple of months, asked me
if I wanted to swing dance. So I went out
and did a couple of swing dances and went to
the side and just kind of looked across the dance
floor and it was a feeling like this was the
best life could get for a young kid. And then

(04:48):
I texted my friends and they said that they were
near the bar, so I took a few steps toward
the bar and then I heard the first shots.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Immediately knew what it was.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
I knew it was a gun, but it was like
you're in a gun range without any ear protection on,
with it reverberating through the room, and I thought it
may have been a dispute between two people. And I
turned to my left and there was a guy all
in black and he had just shot someone in the

(05:22):
front and then started shooting toward the bar where my
friends were. And I didn't really feel any emotions. I
just was in shock that this was happening and it
wasn't you could tell it wasn't a planned thing where
he was coming in to kill someone. He was coming

(05:42):
in to kill as many people as he could. Then
he turned the gun toward the area I was in
and started shooting, and I immediately dropped to the floor
and went toward the wall near the dance floor or
it is, out of vision of the front upper level,

(06:04):
and placed my back against that. And then I remember
not feeling safe there because if he went down, you
could see me. So I jumped over the wall onto
a few tables and went under the tables onto push
some chairs out of the way, some bar stools, and
then there was a.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Pause.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
It felt like it felt like I was in there
for twenty minutes, and in actuality, I was probably in
there for two minutes or so. And he when knows
this pause, someone said run, and it's it was like
immediately every single person in the bar, who didn't know
what to do based on those words, started moving. So

(06:49):
I got up and started moving toward the direction everyone
was running in.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
And you've been listening to Tyler Spady tell the story
of what happened in a country western bar not far
from his home in Thousand Oaks, California and at a
Borderline Bar and grill. And we all saw the story
in the news, and we've seen stories in the news
like this before. And when we come back, we're gonna
hear more from Tyler Spady and what happened on that

(07:17):
night and beyond. This is our American Stories, folks. If
you love the great American stories we tell and love
America like we do, we're asking you to become a
part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree

(07:40):
that America is a good and great country, please make
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Go to our American Stories dot com now and go
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our Americanstories dot Com. And we

(08:09):
returned to our American Stories. In Tyler Spady's story, we're
talking about the mass shooting that occurred in Thousand Oaks, California,
at the Borderline Bar and Grill, where thirteen people were
killed in an instant practically, and Tyler was there. There
was a pause and gunfire, so someone in the Borderline

(08:30):
bar and Grill yelled run as Tyler recalled quote. With
those words, everyone started moving, and that included Tyler himself.
Here again, it's Tyler Spady.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Everyone was running toward the kitchen.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
I didn't know whether it was behind me or not,
so I looked over my shoulder, and when I turned around,
someone had put down the waiter door, and I hit
my face into that and fell under it and started crawling.
And everyone was shoving and pushing trying to get through

(09:05):
the small door, trampling over each other, and people are
basically swimming over each other, and it was a really
claustrophobic moment of terror. And you could hear the bullets
whizzing over and hitting the walls as we were moving out.
And I got up and started running, running through the

(09:28):
kitchen in a haze. I got to the back of
the bar where there's a loading dock and jumped off
that and fell over onto the ground and then recovered
from that. And there's a group of about forty of
the people that were with me running to the hill nearby,
and I started running up to that, but I didn't

(09:48):
feel safe in that moment, so I told everyone on
the hill to run to the neighborhood nearby, and a
girl came with me, and I helped her over the fence,
and we went to every door in the neighborhood nearby
and started knocking on the doors trying to get into houses.

(10:09):
Eventually we're able to get inside, and when I finally
did get inside, it was no longer the fight or
flight where I was just trying to live.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
I was able to feel safe.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
So I just laid against the wall and started crying
and received calls and called my family to tell them
that I was okay, and.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
It was.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
It's interesting looking back, I can feel how I felt
that night. I don't dwell on it that often or
think about it is I don't think it's beneficial for
me to do so, and I've kind of moved past it,
but I can definitely feel those emotions and the family
albe forever grateful for them letting me into that home,

(10:53):
because they were really kind to me and embraced me
and really helped me. After this, my friend John called
me and said he was all right, and they had
jumped out the window and he had a similar situation
of swimming over people. And so I got in the

(11:14):
car with his mom came and picked me up, and
I'd known this guy since middle school and I was
just glad.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
That he was okay.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
And we drove home and it was a quiet but
really sad ride home where you're just trying to take
in what you just witnessed. When I did finally get home,
I can remember the best feeling that I've ever had
in my life was hugging my mom and my sisters
and falling to my knees upstairs and just letting every

(11:44):
single emotion I had out and for about ten minutes
laying on the ground.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
After this, we.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Turned on the news and it further became real. We
were all in shock, everyone in the room. My neighbors
of fifteen years came came over to the house and
embraced me, and they were also regulars at this place.
When I got home, my mom said that I had
blood splattered on my face, but I didn't have any cuts,

(12:17):
so I went and.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Cried. Well. I washed myself off.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
And went back to the room to see everyone, and.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
I can't I can't express the feelings that I had.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
And it was just other than disbelief and terror, but
a terror in a sense that you can't get a
thought together. There is nothing but the absence of feeling.
One of my friends actually that night, who had we
had seen there, was not allowed in because of some reasons,

(12:54):
and so him and his girlfriend had gone home. And
that's just another thing, another moment of God, I think,
interjecting into this, and.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Everything happens for reasons.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
So those people were spared the trauma as well, and
potentially more than that. In the days following, you slowly
get information about friends and people you know who have
been were killed in this event. And me and my sister,

(13:34):
my sister was best friends with one of the people,
one of their sisters that had passed, and when we
got that news, we just both weeped in her room.
That was a terrible moment for me and her. But
this family that formed out of that and was there

(13:57):
before will always have a special place in my heart
and are considered family to me. I will never lose
the connections that I've made that night from all these
these individuals. A few days later after the event, when

(14:17):
we were doing different events with everyone and coming together
to feel this as a group, Donald Trump flew into
the town and visited with a few of the families
who had lost certain individuals and showed nothing but love
and admiration for everyone involved.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
That was a really.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Incredible experience to meet a president and for him to
do that for us. One of the things that I
take away from this, I mean, there's a verse. There's
no greater love than to give your life for a friend.
And many individuals that night had done that that act,
and I'll be grateful to those people. After this all happened,

(15:06):
it was just months of recovering from the trauma, and
I tried to put myself in it as much as possible,
to sit on it now and.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Let it go in my past later.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
So I tried to be around people around me that
were also involved in it. And because I was actually
going to Montana, so I set this date. It was
January eighth that I was going to Montana and Montana

(15:41):
and this happened on November seventh, the day I was
going to leave to go to Montana. I went to
the to the bar to see it one last time
and say goodbye and leave it in the past. So

(16:03):
I got on the plane and went to Montana, and
I lived in Montana where I was born, and got
to move past that moment and change my scenery. Then
I came back for the one year anniversary and felt
it again with the individuals that were with me, with

(16:25):
all the people there, I was able to heal more
but also see the good in every moment. The family
that is borderline that had come together was there to
comfort everyone who was still hurting and to move past

(16:47):
it as a maybe more than borderline of a Thousand
Oaks family, of Venture County family, all these people that
are connected in this close knit community.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
And what a voice you've been listening to Tyler Spady
tell the story of not merely a mass shooting episode
that took the lives of thirteen young people, but changed
the town he lived in, but not just for the
worse in many ways, as he put it, for the better.
Evil can come knocking, and it will. But how a

(17:19):
town copes with that, how it comes together and rises
above it. It takes the measure of the town. It
can do it the same thing it can do to
a marriage. Someone loses a kid and that marriage isn't strong. Well,
it has two ways to go. It gets stronger or
it breaks apart. And how we deal with tragedy and trauma,
we talk a lot about these things here on the show.
The story of Tyler Spady indeed the story of a town,

(17:42):
a thousand Oaks, a beautiful story in the end, a
sad one too. Tyler Spady's here on our American Stories

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