The investigation has been focused on the motivation for the attack, with officials, including U.S. President Barack Obama and San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan, saying it may have been motivated by extremist ideology.
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Malik also pledged her allegiance to Islamic State on Facebook in posts made minutes before the massacre.
The FBI on Friday said it was investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.
“We know that ISIL and other terrorist groups are actively encouraging people around the world and in our country to commit bad acts of violence, often times as lone wolf actors”, he said.
The FBI has not concluded that Syed Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, were terrorists – only that investigators have gathered enough preliminary information to move their probe in that direction.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
A Facebook executive confirmed Friday that Malik had praised Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a post on the social media site just minutes into the attack. “And they also knew he was licensed for them”.
On Wednesday, Tashfeen Malik and her husband Syed Farook stormed the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif. during a holiday party, fatally shooting 14 people and wounding 21.
United States authorities are trying to learn what contacts Malik might have had with Islamic militants in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where she grew up, the official said on condition of anonymity.
“We are now going through the forensics”, he said.
Gustavo Ramirez, who said he was the stepfather of the man the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking for, told the Los Angeles Times the family was concerned because they hadn’t heard from him since Wednesday, and it’s unlike him to not come home.
“There’s a serious investigation ongoing into what she was doing in Pakistan and in Saudi, including if she attended the red mosque in Islamabad, which is a very radicalized mosque”, he said on “Fox News Sunday”.
The couple, who left their 6-month-old daughter with grandparents on the day of shooting, wore black tactical gear with pockets to hold magazines and bombs and left 3 pipe bombs attached together with remote control in a bag at the shooting scene.
Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, said the case illustrates the difficulties in detecting self-radicalised attackers.
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Investigators are exploring Farook’s communications with at least one person who was under investigation for possible terror connections.
