Mourners Start Line Dancing In Honor Of Borderline Bar Shooting Victims

THOUSAND OAKS (CBSLA) — Grief on the one-year anniversary of the Borderline Bar shooting gave way to joy as mourners remembered their loved ones --  and spontaneous line dancing.

Thursday was a mostly somber day remembering the massacre that killed 12 people who were at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks for a college country music night on Nov. 7, 2018. Thousand Oaks marked the day with memorial ceremonies and the public opening of a healing garden built as a public tribute to the victims and survivors.

The Borderline Bar and Grill, which remains closed a year after the shooting, is still the site of a somber memorial of flowers, crosses and emotional messages to the families of the victims.

But on Thursday night, the parking lot also became a dance floor as line dancing broke out among the survivors, victims and their family members.

The father of Kristina Morisette, the bar's hostess who was killed, said participating in the Borderline community has helped him heal from last year's horrific tragedy.

"I'm trying to honor Kristina by…I've been engaging in the community that she was starting to engage in," Michael Morisette said. "I've been trying to build connections and just build friendships and remind people to lift each other up. I've been trying to honor her memory by reliving or encouraging the good aspects that I know in her and that her friends have told us about."