Mourners gather to remember Borderline shooting victim Cody Coffman

One wore a black cowboy hat; another wore his No. 70 jersey, “Coffman” printed on the back.

The mourners packed the Perez Family Funeral Home in Camarillo on Wednesday evening to remember Cody Coffman, who was one of a dozen killed last week when a gunman sprayed bullets into the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks during college night at the country-themed bar.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that during the service, one of Coffman’s friends recalled meeting him on the Borderline dance floor.

“He taught me how to two-step,” a woman named Erica said during the service, the newspaper reported. “Halfway through the dance he said, ‘By the way, I’m Cody.’ ‘By the way, I’m Erica.’ From then on, he was always my partner. He would always pull me out onto the floor when no other boys would.”

She said Coffman had used his body to shield her from the bullets.

“Be ready to put others before yourself, like Cody did last week,” Coffman’s youth pastor said during the service, according to the Tribune.

Jason Coffman told The Times last week that he woke up to the sound of banging on his door in Camarillo about 1 a.m. Thursday. He thought it was the police. It was his son’s friends, who told him about the shooting.

“He didn’t come out,” Coffman, 41, said of his son.

Cody Coffman was on his way to fulfilling his dream, his father said. He had plans to join the military and had been talking to recruiters. He was looking forward to being a big brother to his unborn sister and had two younger brothers, ages 6 and 8.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek