Their efforts there are focused on a bespectacled former Walmart employee, Enrique Marquez, and his purchase of a pair of rifles used in the attack that claimed 14 lives.
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CNN, citing unnamed officials, reported Farook had been a member of Kabir’s social circle.
The hunt comes after the FBI received information the couple spent time in the pond, based on a senior official with knowledge of the investigation.
They have also interviewed more than 400 people, including Enrique Marquez, a childhood friend of Farook who purchased the rifles used in the ambush. He has told them of a 2012 terror plot he and Farook allegedly hatched, then scuttled.
Around the time that the two friends were reportedly planning an attack, in 2012, Marquez and Farook seemed to become estranged.
More details about the connections between the San Bernardino shooters and extremists were revealed on Thursday, the same day that the Department of Homeland Security gave a classified briefing to US legislators. Relatives have declined to speak with CNN and no attorney has come forward.
Investigators on Thursday continued to search for digital footprints left by Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, scouring a downtown San Bernardino lake for electronic items, including a hard drive that the couple was hoping to destroy, sources told The Times.
The timing of the rifle purchases is significant to FBI investigators.
The official said the goal of Thursday’s search was to see if the two left or stored anything at the lake, which is approximately 2.5 miles north of the IRC. The two were friends for years and became family last year with a sister-in-law in common.
“I think that there is evidence of radicalization in the case of Farook that went back years”.
Marquez, 24, checked himself into a mental health facility the day after the shooting. According to California marriage records, she married Farook just one month later.
Schiff also said it’s too early to conclude if law enforcement should have caught the plan earlier through surveillance.
Marquez told Federal Bureau of Investigation agents that the Facebook post has been “misunderstood”, according to one of the government sources. Agents ultimately forced entry through the garage. His credibility has been questioned, however, as law enforcement officials believe he may be embellishing what he knows in a bid for leniency. “My son is a good person”. While they spoke with reporters, they also said they believe Marquez’s marriage was a sham.
Marquez, who is related to Farook’s family by marriage – his wife and the wife of Farook’s older brother are sisters – has not been charged with any crime. She did not associate with Marquez outside of work, she said. He lived next to Farook on Tomlinson Avenue, and neighbors said the two young men worked on their cars together.
Right after the shooting, Marquez called his mother to say he was safe but that he wouldn’t be coming home, neighbor Lorena Aguirre said.
“He never really talked to anyone”, Escamilla said, adding that he was “really introverted”.
Marquez, a convert to Islam, legally bought the guns in 2011 or 2012.
“When he woke up, he just started laughing”, Lopez said.
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When asked what was so amusing, Marquez said he wasn’t laughing.
