But they have also returned, again and again, to a much closer source of clues: The house next door to the boyhood home of killer Syed Rizwan Farook.
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But Marquez, who is co-operating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has told investigators that he got cold feet and the 2012 plot fell through, the network reported. On Dec. 2, Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire at the Inland Regional Center, killing 14 people and injuring 20 others.
This radicalization appears to predate the rise of the Islamic State, the terrorist group that in 2014 formally declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.Comey said investigators believe the attackers were “inspired by foreign terrorist organizations.”We’re working very hard to understand exactly their association and the source of their inspiration”, he said”.
FBI investigators have pieced together more clues in the lives of Syed Rizwan Farook, a US-born Muslim, and his Pakistani immigrant wife Tashfeen Malik, in an effort to understand why they carried out the mass shooting at a Christmas work party in southern California that killed 14 people and wounded 21 others.
The two San Bernardino shooters were radicalized at least two years ago – well before one of them came to the USA on a fiancée visa – and had discussed jihad and martyrdom as early as 2013, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday in providing the most specific details to date about the couple’s path toward extremism.
The Dec. 2 shooting massacre by Farook, the U.S.-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and Malik, 29, a Pakistani native he married in Saudi Arabia past year, has heightened security concerns in the United States and has become an issue in the USA presidential campaign.
Farook and Marquez were listed as witnesses on the marriage license when Farook’s brother, Raheel, Wednesday a Russian woman in 2011.
Right after the shootings, Marquez called his mother to say he was safe, but that he wouldn’t be coming home, neighbor Lorena Aguirre said.
An enigmatic Facebook post by Marquez just hours after last week’s attack indicated he knew something was very wrong. It is unclear where he is now.
Law enforcement officials have also found that Farook had contacts with six people in Orange County, California, who federal authorities had scrutinized at some point in recent years for their apparent ties to terrorism.
The couple Wednesday a year ago.
Syed Raheel reportedly vouched for Marquez at the time of his now-questionable marriage to Chernykh, saying that he would have the financial means necessary to support her.
Responding to a question, Comey said as of now there is no evidence that the marriage between Farook and Tashfeen was arranged by a terrorist operative or organisation.
Hasan said Marquez acted goofy, describing one instance when he saw him outside the mosque laughing out loud to himself.
Reached in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, Malik’s father condemned his daughter’s actions and said he is “very, very sad…”
A US official said Tuesday authorities are looking into a deposit made to Farook’s bank account before the attack.
The search of the lake, which could last for days, stemmed from an unspecified lead “indicating that the subjects came into this area” on the day of the attack, said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.
Parvin, Mather and Queally reported from Los Angeles and Serrano from Washington.
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– From Associated Press writer Tami Abdollah in Washington, D.C.
