Sheriff’s officials ready to bury ‘hero’ Sgt. Ron Helus after Thousand Oaks shooting

First responders from around the state are expected to attend this week’s funeral of Ventura County sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus, who was killed at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks during last week’s mass shooting.

The public is also invited to attend the 12 p.m. Thursday service at Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village.

“This is a very significant thing not only for the (Ventura County) Sheriff’s Office but also for Ron’s family to lay him to rest as the hero that he was,” Ventura County sheriff’s Capt. Garo Kuredjian said Tuesday.

Helus, a 29-year-department veteran, and an unidentified California Highway Patrol officer were the first responding officers to enter the bar during the Nov. 7 shooting that began at about 11:20 p.m.

Helus and the officer both fired their weapons inside but did not strike the gunman, according to authorities. Helus was fatally shot inside the bar and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The gunman also killed 11 other people at the bar before turning the gun on himself.

Following Thursday’s noon service, there will be a procession of vehicles to the nearby Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park. It will travel north from the church, which is at 5495 Via Rocas, then east on Via Colinas and northwest on Lindero Canyon Road to the cemetery.

Helus will be buried with full law-enforcement honors, including an aerial flyover of sheriff’s helicopters.

Kuredjian said he anticipates more than 1,000 law enforcement officials to attend, and noted that it could be “several thousand.”

“We’ve had interest from (agencies) across the nation, but again, with the fires, I don’t know if it will affect their participation.”

Ventura County has been battling two major fires since last week, the deadly Woolsey fire, also burning in Los Angeles County, and the Hill fire. Sheriff’s deputies have been helping to secure evacuated areas.

Lisa Morris, who retired four years ago from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office as an intake and release specialist, brought yellow mums on Monday to the Thousand Oaks Sheriff’s Station in Helus’ memory. She turned back, however, when she found that the front doors were locked.

Morris recalled Helus as “very caring” and supportive.

“He always wanted you to be successful in whatever you did in life,” she said.

Morris had just laid down a bouquet of roses for each of the 12 Borderline victims at a growing memorial near the bar. There, each of the victims is honored with a white cross bearing their name, flowers and messages of love and heartbreak.

Morris noted that the Sheriff’s Department also lost Deputy Yevhen “Eugene” Kostiuchenko, who was killed by a drunk driver, in the fall of 2014.

“I literally just left (Kostiuchenko) flowers at his little site” to commemorate the fourth anniversary of his death, she said. “Then four days later, this happened. It’s been a rough week.”