Meanwhile, Enrique Marquez, friend and neighbor of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, was arrested Thursday and charged with “conspiring to provide material support to terrorists” and with making a “straw purchase” of the two rifles that were later used in the San Bernardino attacks.
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Then, in 2011, the two men began plotting a terrorist attack that never came to fruition – but along the way, Marquez purchased the assault-style rifles Farook and Malik used, the Justice Department says. Marquez, according to the complaint, said he was spooked by the arrests of four Southern California men accused of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Security is tight as a vehicle carrying Enrique Marquez Jr. arrives at U.S. District Court in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015.
A bail hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Marquez, meanwhile, now faces charges that he and Farook had plans to attack Riverside Community College with pipe bombs and firearms, according to a 36-page indictment in which the suspect provided most of the details to federal authorities.
Three days after the attack, federal agents raided his mother’s house in Riverside, a city near San Bernardino that is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. “People felt comfortable around him”. “My world is upside-down”, she said tearfully. “What was the guy’s name that had your gun?” the operator asked. According to the affidavit, Marquez told investigators that he agreed to purchase the weapons because “his appearance was Caucasian, while Farook looked Middle-Eastern”.
Towards the end of 2005, Marquez visited a mosque in Corona, California, and began to spend more time next door at Farook’s home, praying and discussing an increasingly radical form of Islam.
But he clearly continued to think about his past association with Farook as he posted on Facebook a month before the attacks.
“Later, he writes: “… involved in terrorist plots, drugs, antisocial behavior, marriage, might go to prison for fraud, etc”.
He told the operator he wanted to kill himself, the affidavit states. Though intelligence officials have no specific information on attacks, ?we have to be vigilant, ? the president said.?We are in a new phase of terrorism, including lone actors and small groups of terrorists, like those in San Bernardino.? But federal prosecutors said that in addition to purchasing the two rifles, Marquez also purchased explosive material that was used to build a pipe bomb found at the IRC immediately after the shootings.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, their discussions shifted shortly after Marquez converted. He was then referred to the psychiatric ward and placed on an involuntary hold, ABC News said.
Marquez’s public defender declined to comment on the charges filed this week.
She said she knew nothing of the FBI’s interest in her son, whom she described as having been a normal teenager.
“It was a very small school”.
Weeks before the attack friends say Marquez dropped hints of an impending attack. “He was always alone”.
He seemed relaxed, leaning back in his chair, and said he understood the charges against him. “I don’t even remember who he hung out with”.
Marquez allegedly called 911 hours after Farook and Malik died in a police shootout to say that his guns had been used in the attack. That’s a reference to the leader of Islamic State, authorities said.
More times than not, that’s exactly what happens, but not in the case of Enrique Marquez.
He’s also accused of entering a sham marriage with a member of Farook’s family, according to the complaint.
“I never seen him with a girl”, he said. The call indicates the apparently distraught Marquez was also considering suicide.
About a month before the attack, Marquez made a reference to the marriage and living “multiple lives” in a chat with a fellow Facebook user that foreshadowed the trouble he was facing before any bullets started flying.
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“That’s how everybody knew Enrique”, Morgan said.
