The shooters radicalized at least two years ago and discussed jihad and martyrdom as early as 2013, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday.
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The attack is being investigated as an act of terror, the deadliest in the United States since September 2011.
Authorities think Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik “at some point” were at the park a few miles from the site where they killed 14 people last week, Bowdich told reporters Thursday.
Farook, 28, and his wife, Malik, 29, were killed hours later in a shootout with police, leaving behind a 6-month-old daughter. He declined to say what the bureau is looking for or to disclose new information on the investigation. According to ABC News, Marquez told FBI investigators that he and Farook plotted a terror attack in 2012, but called off the plans after a series of terror-related arrests in other cities.
In addition to going on a shooting rampage, investigators say the San Bernardino shooters may have also planned to kill first responders with a self-detonating bomb. The officials said that they are still trying to retrieve data from the devices.
Marquez, 24, spoke with federal authorities after they raided his mother’s Riverside house over the weekend. “We put a dive team into the lake as a logical part of that lead”.
The investigation into the motivation of the couple who committed a mass shooting in San Bernardino, CA, has moved to a nearby lake, where FBI agents are searching for submerged evidence.
A jury past year convicted two of those men, including Afghan-born ringleader Sohiel Omar Kabir, of conspiring to provide material support and resources to al-Qaeda and plotting to attack US military forces in Afghanistan.
Marquez’s wife also has a connection to the Farook family, which is leading investigators down yet another road.
The official has been briefed on the investigation but isn’t authorized to speak publicly.
“The question for us”, he told reporters Monday, “is how, and by whom, and where”. But he added that he was troubled by the fact that the couple had tried to cover their tracks by destroying their cellphones and other electronic equipment.
In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa said Malik had listed a false address in Pakistan that screeners did not catch.
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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“In terms of our foreign intelligence gathering, in terms of our electronic surveillance, I don’t know yet that there was something that was in one of our holdings that we should have been aware of and we weren’t”, Schiff said. He has not been charged with a crime, but could face charges if it turns out he did not properly transfer the guns to Farook. Marquez, who is cooperating with the investigation and has been interviewed several times, was particularly close with Farook, according to senior law enforcement officials.
