Federal Bureau of Investigation divers were searching a lake near the San Bernardino massacre scene on Thursday, looking for potential evidence in the case, law-enforcement sources told NBC News. Comey said the two San Bernardino shooters were radicalized at least two yea…
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FBI investigators have pieced together more clues in the lives of Syed Rizwan Farook, a US-born Muslim, and his Pakistani immigrant wife Tashfeen Malik, in an effort to understand why they carried out the mass shooting at a Christmas work party in southern California that killed 14 people and wounded 21 others.
The final post on a Facebook page believed to be associated with Malik used the word “we” and pledged allegiance to ISIS, an indication, a USA official said, that it was a statement on behalf of both killers.
He declined to discuss what specifically led investigators to conclude that the couple had radicalized independently as early as 2013.
Kabir lived in Riverside, which is near San Bernardino. Another 21 were injured when Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik carried out the deadliest terror strike on American soil since 9/11.
And as authorities comb through evidence five days after a massacre that President Barack Obama and law enforcement officials call an act of terrorism, there’s another key question looming over the investigation: Could anything have been done to foil the plot? Another FBI official said it didn’t seem like the two men had picked a target, and it is unclear how far along they were in the planning stage.
In addition to having been neighbours in Riverside, California growing up, Marquez had married the sister of Farook’s sister-in-law in November 2014, according to public records.
The couple killed 14 people during a holiday gathering at the Inland Regional Center. Former neighbor Enrique Marquez bought the two rifles used in the attack, officials say.
A law enforcement source said investigators are focusing on how Malik obtained the K-1 fiancée visa that the United States issued so she could come to the country with Farook. We may come up with nothing, we just don’t know yet.
Representative Bob Goodlatte, Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told reporters afterward that there were people in the community who saw suspicious activity at the shooters’ house but decided not to tell authorities “for a variety of reasons”.
One of the sources said Thursday that Farook wanted to make sure “the guns were not tied back to him” when he asked Enrique Marquez to make the purchases at a Southern California gun store in 2011 or 2012.
A USA official said Tuesday authorities are looking into a deposit made to Farook’s bank account before the attack.
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The damage occurred when federal agents raided the home over the weekend after Marquez became a central figure in the investigation. He also checked himself into a mental health clinic after the attacks.
