More details have emerged about the two people believed responsible for carrying out Wednesday’s deadly attack on a social service center in Southern California that left 14 dead and 17 wounded.
Advertisement
Police had originally sought as many as three attackers, but Burguan said he was “reasonably confident at this point that we have two shooters and we have two suspects who’re deceased”. Farook was USA born, while Malik’s nationality was still unknown. They were parents of a six-month-old baby girl.
According to local news reports Farook was employed by the San Bernardino County health department which is believed to have organized the party at the Inland Regional Center.
On Wednesday night in Anaheim, hours after the pursuit and shootout with police that killed both Farook and Malik, Farook’s brother-in-law Farhan Khan expressed remorse and shock over the events that took place earlier that day.
Burguan said Farook had attended the Christmas party organized by the health department and left after an apparent dispute, only to return a short time later with Malik, armed with assault rifles and semiautomatic handguns. The SUV stopped a quarter a mile later, as an officer returned fire.
The couple were dressed in assault-style clothing and also placed several bombs at various locations, which police detonated.
The US has experienced numerous mass shootings – this latest comes comes less than a week after a gunman killed three people and wounded nine in a shooting rampage at a planed Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
Since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, the Obama administration began to push stronger gun control laws in vain. A third person, who was spotted running near the gun battle was detained, but Burguan said it was unclear if that person had anything to do with the crime.
David Bowdich, an assistant regional Federal Bureau of Investigation director, said earlier in the day that authorities had not yet determined whether the shooting was an act of terrorism.
“We are definitely making some movements that it is a possibility”, he said. “And we are not willing to go down that road yet”. “It’s possible it does not”. Why would he do something like this?
Khan, who said he last spoke to Farook about a week ago, said he had “absolutely no idea why [Farook] would do this”.
Police forces started a manhunt that included a door to door search for some suspect who fled the scene in San Bernardino, situated about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. He said his son was sheltered with a group of people before they managed to get out.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR in the Los Angeles area, said Farook and his wife had been missing since Wednesday morning. Is it work, race-related, is it mental illness, is it extreme ideology? “Is it extreme ideology?” he said. But we don’t know that yet.
Hours later police raided an apartment complex in the nearby town of Redlands, the black SUV pulled away and a chase ensued. One officer suffered a minor injury.
The slain suspects were identified by police as Syed Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, were described as a couple. The conditions of patients taken to other medical facilities was not immediately known.
Advertisement
Mayor Carey Davis (C) of San Bernardino, California talks to the media, after an emergency city council meeting, with all of the council behind him, December 2, 2015.
