The 24-year-old Marquez was charged Thursday with terrorism-related counts including illegally purchasing two assault rifles used by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, to kill 14 people on December 2.
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“[Marquez’s] prior purchase of the firearms and ongoing failure to warn authorities about Farook’s intent to commit mass murder had fatal consequences”, US Attorney Eileen Decker said. Marquez appeared disheveled but calm and showed no emotion during the 10-minute hearing. He is scheduled for arraignment on January 6.
The FBI was previously taking a closer look at whether the transfer was legal. The president has used the attack to renew his call to tighter gun control, drawing criticism from some Republicans who say the administration should do more to fight terrorism than restrict guns. Over the next few years, Farook provided Marquez with radical Islamic materials, and by 2011, Marquez spent most of his time at Farook’s residence listening to lectures and watching videos involving radical Islamic content. Those materials included Inspire Magazine, the official publication of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and videos produced by Al-Shabaab.
Marquez has been at the center of the extensive federal investigation of the massacre carried out by his former neighbor, Syed Rizwan Farook, and Farook’s Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik. The plot targeted the cafeteria and library. He and Farook also planned to attack a state highway during peak hour with pipe bombs and shoot at law enforcement and emergency crews as they arrived. After that year, prosecutors said, Marquez distanced himself from Farook and ceased plotting with him. The pair chose a stretch of State Route 91 in Riverside where there were no exits to “increase the number of targets”.
Marquez was working at a Riverside bar at the time of the shooting and is not alleged to have had a role in the attack, but prosecutors said he was linked to the killings by the guns and bomb-making materials he bought that the couple planned to detonate. The following year, Farook would marry his accomplice in the San Bernardino shootings, Malik. According to the complaint, which cited Marquez, their contact started to decline after 2012, and they stopped planning attacks together.
Enrique Marquez as seen in his Facebook profile image.
After Marquez had moved to Riverside, his next-door neighbor introduced him to Islam. He and Farook were friends for years and became family last year with a sister-in-law in common.
Officials also accused him of “defrauding immigration authorities by entering into a sham marriage with a member of Farook’s family”.
Records show that Marquez married Mariya Chernykh at a ceremony at the Islamic Society of Corona-Norco, though the mosque’s facility manager denied it occurred there.
Prosecutors paint a disturbing portrait of Syed Rizwan Farook radicalizing Enrique Marquez, allegedly convincing him to kill before the convert pulled away. He had worked at Wal-Mart since May but has since been fired, spokesman Brian Nick said.
Melley reported from Los Angeles.
Marquez rarely spoke about his family or his marriage, Ramirez said.
But authorities do say he bought the two rifles eventually used in the shooting, apparently in preparation for terror attacks that never happened – one against a community college Marquez and Farook had once attended, the other on a busy roadway. “He was a pretty laidback guy”.
Little else is known about Marquez-he checked himself into a mental hospital shortly after the San Bernardino shooting. The officials were not authorized to discuss the charges by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Marquez was reportedly a recent convert to Islam and married one of Farook’s relatives.
