Authorities on Thursday were trying to learn why a couple left behind their infant daughter and carried out a shooting rampage that left 14 people dead and seriously wounded more than a dozen others in one of the nation’s worst mass shootings.
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David Bowdich, assistant director of FBI Los Angeles office, would not comment explicitly on reports that Farook may have been radicalised and was communicating with suspected terrorists. She is Tashfeen Malik, the 27-year-old wife of Syed Farook. Authorities said Malik came to the U.S. on a Pakistani passport in July 2014.
Nizaam Ali, 23, a student interviewed at the mosque, said Farook came frequently to the mosque – but had not been seen for the last three weeks.
But he said he said the “radicalization of Muslim youth is a problem”.
The couple were shot to death about four hours later and a few kilometres away in a furious gunbattle with police.
Local police officials said at a press conference on Thursday that Farook was not on their radar for terrorism.
Syed Farook would not have set off alarms as a gun shopper. He pointed to the discovery of hundreds of rounds of ammunition in their rented black SUV as well as in their apartment.
Twelve pipe bomb-like devices and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found at the home.
“There was obviously a mission here”, he told journalists. He has no mental health history that we know of. We know that. We do not know why.
The next time his co-workers saw him, he was dressed in battle gear and wielding an assault rifle.
He said Farook and his wife had fired between 65 and 75 rounds during the attack at a social services centre that entailed “a degree of planning”.
Two police officers were injured during the pursuit.
Officials said the two assault rifles were variants of the AR-15, the semiautomatic version of the military M-16 rifle; one was made by DPMS Panther Arms, and the other was a Smith & Wesson M&P model, a designation meaning military and police. Four hours after the carnage, police riddled the SUV with gunfire. On a dating website Farook stated that he identified as a Sunni Muslim, the Daily Caller reported.
The husband and wife didn’t leave a note to explain their attack, nor did they say anything during the bloodbath, said San Bernardino’s police chief. Three explosive devices, thought to be real and all connected to one another, were found at the centre and later detonated by a bomb squad.
Meredith Davis of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives says investigators are now working to make a connection to the last legal purchaser.
Farook and Malik had enough firepower to do more killing.
MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS Police officers conduct a manhunt after a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. “… And they could have done another attack”. He had worked there for five years.
In a short narrative, he described himself as hailing from a “religious (sic) but modern family of 4, 2 girls 2 boys”. “Enjoys travelling and just hanging out in the back yard doing target practice with his younger sister and friends”, his profile read.
The couple dropped off their 6-month-old daughter with relatives Wednesday morning, saying they had a doctor’s appointment, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said after talking with family. I have absolutely no idea.
“We’re going to have to I think search ourselves as a society to make sure that we take some basic steps that make it harder – not impossible – but harder for individuals to get access to weapons”, said the president. “I don’t have words to express how sad and how devastated I am”.
Whatever their intentions, Farook and Malik caused an avalanche of pain. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center has received eight patients, an employee who didn’t want to be named told CNN.
“We unequivocally condemn the horrific act that happened today”, Ayloush told reporters.
At least 10 people were still hospitalized Thursday morning, split evenly between Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Ten people remained hospitalised at two local hospitals – two in critical but stable condition, three in fair condition and five in stable condition, the hospitals said.
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Although officials have yet to release the identity of the victims, some names have begun emerging on social media.
