The FBI would not discuss specific evidence, but officials said Thursday investigators were seeking “anything that had to do” with the shooting.
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Authorities are trying to piece together details on why 29-year-old Tashfeen, a Pakistani national and Farook, 28, a Pakistani-American, opened fire on the latter’s co-workers at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California on December 2.
“We have not commented on the items, or whether they are case-related, due to the ongoing investigation”, Eimiller said, responding to a media report that the objects were not tied the crimes under investigation.
As part of their investigation into the electronic trail of Ms. Malik and Mr. Farook, investigators are searching for devices, including a computer hard drive that appeared to be missing from their home, and cellphones they might have abandoned.
Federal authorities are looking for Farook’s hard drive, which is a key focus of the investigation, according to a senior law enforcement official. But the lake is a few miles from San Bernardino’s Inland Regional Center, where the massacre occurred.
Farook’s longtime friend and relative-through-marriage, Enrique Marquez, bought the assault rifles used in the shooting more than three years ago, about the time he converted to Islam, San Bernardino Sun quoted a law enforcement official as saying.
FBI Director James Comey Jr. has warned that there are more terrorist organisations planning to attack the homeland at this time than there were before the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda launched terrorist attacks in three US cities that killed almost 3,000 people.
Obama said that while there was no evidence the shooters were directed by a terror network overseas or part of a broader plot, “the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalisation”.
Washington is considering tighter scrutiny of visa applications and tougher norms for entering the U.S. after it failed to detect pro-jihad social media posts by the Pakistani terrorist Tashfeen Malik and allowed her to enter the country on a fiancee visa.
In the interview, Burr said Farook could have been radicalized as early as 2010 and Malik by 2012 as he called into question the immigration process.
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Officials told the newspaper that there’s an internal debate going on within the Department of Homeland Security over whether such checks should be done. But none uncovered what Malik had made little effort to hide – that she talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad. Specifically, he was asked whether social media activity should be considered in the vetting process. The date that these types of reviews began is not clear, but it was after Malik was considered, the source said.
