At the White House, President Barack Obama said after meeting with his national security team that it was “possible this was terrorist-related” but that authorities were unsure.
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Armoured police cars close in on a suspect vehicle after the shooting in San Bernardino, California, in this still image taken from video on Wednesday. And I just received a briefing from FBI director Comey as well as attorney general Lynch indicating the course of their investigation.
Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, who had a sixmonth- old daughter together, were killed in a shootout with police hours after Wednesday’s bloodshed at the Inland Regional Center, a social services agency for the disabled, in San Bernardino, 100 km east of LA.
Yesterday Farook and his colleagues were attending a holiday party at the Inland Regional Centre.
They fired another 76 shots at police during the ensuing chase and died during the shootout.
Law enforcement officers found thousands of rounds of ammunition for assault rifles and pistols in addition to a dozen homemade pipe bombs at their home in Redlands. He emphasizes that the attackers’ motives remain unknown. “We do not know why”.
Khan, who said he last spoke to Farook about a week ago, said he had “absolutely no idea why [Farook] would do this”.
Investigators said that Farook and his wife were listed on the rental agreement but that it wasn’t known whether they lived there. Farook’s brother-in-law said he was stunned to hear of his relative’s involvement in the shooting.
Police were able to track Farook and Malik down after following “some tips” leading to a home in the nearby city of Redlands. Computers, cellphones and flash-drives were also found during the home search.
Wednesday’s rampage was the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since the Newtown, Connecticut, school tragedy three years ago that left 26 children and adults dead.
The pair planned to use the remote to detonate the explosives from a distance, the official said.
“There was obviously a mission here”, Bowdich said. “We just don’t know”. Public records show it is a possible residence of a Farook family member.
As for Malik, she came to the U.S.in July 2014 on a Pakistani passport and a fiancée visa, authorities said.
“We are confident that the two people involved in the shooting here are the two dead suspects that we have at the scene and we do not have any credible information to indicate that there is an immediate threat to anybody in the area or anybody in the region”, Mr Burguan said.
Authorities are looking to determine if a couple accused of killing 14 people in a mass shooting at a workplace holiday party in California had links to Islamic militant groups overseas, United States officials say. They did not say how the rifles got into the attackers’ hands. Baccari said that up until then Farook showed no signs of unusual behavior and was a reserved young man. About two weeks before the incident, he had a heated conversation about Islam with a coworker, 52-year-old Nicholas Thalasinos, who was killed in the shooting.
Kuuleme Stephens said she once happened to call Nicholas Thalasinos, a Messianic Jew who was passionate about pro-Israel causes, while he was at work and having a discussion with Farook.
“It was a picture of her with a half-smile”, her son said. They explained that they had a doctor’s appointment, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations here, who talked with Farook’s family.
Baccari said he was sitting at the same banquet table as Farook before Farook suddenly disappeared, leaving his coat on his chair. Baccari was in the bathroom when the shooting started; he suffered minor wounds from shrapnel slicing through the wall.
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The shooting lasted about five minutes, he said, and when he looked in the mirror he realized he was bleeding. “I am in shock myself”, Khan said.
