A heavily armed man and woman in their 20s died in a shootout with police after killing 14 people at a Christmas party in California in America’s worst mass shooting in three years, authorities said. The Mass Shooting Tracker, as its called, differs from other shooting databases in that it uses a broader definition than the FBI’s old four-fatality rule: If bullets strike four people in the same attack, that’s a mass shooting. The brother-in-law of Farook said he was stunned to hear of his relative’s involvement in the shooting. “It was not clear if Farook was one of the suspects killed in the shootout with police”.
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Farook abruptly left the center before the shooting “under circumstances described as angry”, said San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan.
David Bowdich, who directs the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said authorities do not know if the shooting is a “terrorist incident”, and investigators did not release a motive for the shooting.
“She started the petition in response to the shooting at Umpqua Community College in OR earlier this fall, but after today’s news, her campaign has grown by over 50,000 signatures since last night, ” Change.org spokeswoman Kelly Sawyers said in an e-mail Thursday morning.
The two suspects were shot dead earlier after police opened fire on their black SUV which had been identified as the getaway vehicle.
“It’s going to be important for all of us, including our legislatures, to see what we can do when individuals decide they want to do somebody harm, we make it a little harder”, Obama said.
“These were people that came prepared”, Burguan said.
Farhan Khan, who is married to Syed Farook’s sister, spoke to reporters at the Anaheim office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He said he was in shock, condemned the violence, and had “absolutely no idea why he would do this”. Farook was U.S. born, while Malik’s nationality was still unknown.
Ayloush reacted within hours of the shooting at a Christmas party at a state-run center that killed 14.
Baccari says the reserved Farook showed no signs of unusual behavior, although he grew out his beard several months ago.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and other law enforcement authorities converged on the center and searched room to room for the attackers. Farook was at the party, just as he’d been a year ago, police said.
It was believed an apartment in Redlands, not far from where the shooting spree took place at 11am local time, was connected to Farook.
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PHOTOS: Scene of mass shooting at San Bernardino social services facilityIn addition to the two assault rifles and two semi-automatic handguns that were used in the shooting, all of which were purchased legally, according to law enforcement sources, investigators also found three pipe bomb-style devices that they believed to be explosive devices.
