SAN BERNARDINO Tashfeen Malik, one of the two shooters who killed 14 people Wednesday at San Bernardino’s Inland Regional Center, was devoted to ISIS, according to two sources close to the investigation.
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A law enforcement official said Malik pledged allegiance to IS and its leader on Facebook, making her posts under an alias.
ORIGINAL POST: Officials say there was a link between a wife, who along with her husband, went on a deadly shooting rampage this week and the terrorist Islamic State group, multiple media outlets are reporting.
Malik, a Pakistani citizen, applied for a K-1 visa at the American embassy in Islamabad in May 2014 and Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia that July to bring her to the US. Though there’s still no evidence that the attacks were the result of any kind of directive from a larger organization-the Islamic State or otherwise-they are now being investigated as an act of terrorism, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said at a press conference.
The shooters crushed their cell phones and attempted to destroy their digital fingerprints, said David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles division, adding that authorities continue to investigate “these horrific acts”.
ABC News obtained the first photo of San Bernardino terror suspect Tashfeen Malik on Friday. He reportedly met Malik, a native of Pakistan, on that trip.
Farook and Malik also made “telephonic connection” with “other subjects in our investigation”, he said, but could not elaborate on whether they were in contact with individuals overseas.
Police said Farook, 28, was a San Bernardino County restaurant inspector, born in Chicago to Pakistani parents.
Her father, Gulzar Malik, moved to Saudi Arabia about three decades ago for work.
Farook and Malik – who dropped off their six-month-old daughter with Farook’s mother shortly beforehand, were killed in a shootout with police five hours after the massacre.
While the attack may have been inspired by Islamic State, there is no evidence that it was directed by the militant group, USA government sources said.
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The dead ranged in age from 26 to 60. Among the 21 injured were two police officers hurt during the manhunt. According to records, Mr. Thalasinos worked as an environmental health specialist in San Bernardino, as did Mr. Farook. Their family has expressed utter bewilderment and sadness at the tragedy, with Farook’s brother-in-law Farhan Khan telling NBC News that Farook was not politically radical or motivated by his faith, but was simply “a bad person” and that the tragedy was “his personal act”.
