Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people at a holiday party thrown by Farook’s employer; they were killed in a shoot-out with police.
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The new information came to light as it was also revealed that Marquez wondered less than a month before the San Bernardino attack when the multiple lives he was leading would come crashing down.
Marquez: He did the San Bernardino shooting. In addition to the terrorism charge, Marquez faces a count of lying on gun purchase forms to hide that he was really buying them for Farook, and one of defrauding the immigration system by entering into a sham marriage with a Russian immigrant.
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An FBI affidavit filed with the charges against Marquez said he bought rifles for Farook in 2011 and 2012 so they could kill students at Riverside City College and drivers on State Route 91, an infamously congested nearby freeway. But hours after that attack, they say Marquez called 911 threatening suicide, asked why by the operator Marquez said I don’t know.
Marquez, who had checked himself into a Los Angeles-area psychiatric facility shortly after the shootings, had several connections to Farook and Malik and quickly became a key figure in the investigation of the shootings.
Family of Enrique Marquez describe him as a “nice guy” and friends said they were shocked to hear of his involvement with the shooting.
“Terrorist? Are you kidding me?” said Sharon Morgan, whose husband, Jerry, hired Marquez to check IDs at his bar, Morgan’s Tavern.
The San Bernardino terror attack represented a type of extremist plot authorities consider exceedingly hard to detect: a conspiracy between close family members. Marquez claims he left his weapons in Farook’s home for storage.
Dubbed “criminal conduct” that “deeply affected San Bernardino County, Southern California and the entire United States when the guns purchased by Marquez were used to kill 14 innocent people and wound many others”, according to a federal official. He also allegedly bought smokeless powder to make explosives in 2012 and went to firing ranges in Riverside and Los Angeles to practice.
During a court appearance Thursday, Marquez said that he understood the charges against him.
Records show Marquez married Chernykh at a ceremony at the Islamic Society of Corona-Norco in California previous year, although the mosque’s facility manager denied it occurred there. Marquez is not accused of participating in those attacks but prosecutors say with his longtime friend and former neighbor the two hatched other plans for mass shootings. He added after a brief exchange with an unidentified Facebook user: “Involved in terrorist plots, drugs, antisocial behavior, marriage, might go to prison for fraud, etc”.
Marquez, 24, was charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists in the deadly plots detailed above. They envisaged hurling pipe bombs into either of the two confined, always busy places, and then shooting people as they fled.
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According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Marquez admitted making plans with Farook to carry out an attack at the library or cafeteria of Riverside Community College, where both attended. During the call Marquez tells the operator that he knew the shooter.
