The details emerged as investigators tried to determine whether the rampage that left 14 people dead was terrorism, a workplace grudge or some combination.
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The couple left behind three rigged-together pipe bombs with a remote-control detonating device that apparently malfunctioned, and they had more than 1,600 unused bullets on hand when police shot and killed them in a rented SUV after an hours-long manhunt, police said.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said at a Thursday news conference that the search of a townhouse leased by Farook and Malik in the nearby community of Redlands turned up flash drives, computers and cellphones.
It is possible this was terrorist-related but we don’t know.
During his presidency, Obama has been confronted with more than a dozen of high-profile mass shootings, and in an interview earlier this year he called the failure to reform USA gun laws “one of the greatest frustrations” of his presidency.
The official said the communication was a “potential factor” in the shooting investigation but cautioned that “contact with individuals who are subjects of investigations in and of itself doesn’t mean that you are a terrorist”.
Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that tracks and analyzes extremists, said it hasn’t found any connection between Farook and jihadi groups.
Farook has no known criminal record, Burguan said.
In Southern California, Wednesday was just like any other day – until it wasn’t.
The Savannah massacre marked the 352nd mass shooting in America this year alone, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker, which defines a mass shooting where at least four people are either injured or killed.
He says the United States needs to pass laws to make it harder for people to get access to weapons when they’re seeking to do harm.
“If you look at the amount of obvious preplanning that went in, the amount of armaments (they) had, the weapons and the ammunition, there was obviously a mission here”, added Bowdich.
“We don’t know the motives”.
“As I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that, and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough”, Obama said.
A third person who was spotted running near the gunbattle was detained, but Burguan said it was unclear if that person had anything to do with the crime.
Bowdich said during the press briefing that Farook had traveled to Pakistan, and reports have surfaced that he visited Saudi Arabia on multiple occasions, including in 2013 for the hajj Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. On Aug. 16, 2015, the couple married in Riverside, according to a marriage certificate obtained by ABC News. Advertising his family as “religious but modern”, he described himself as a health safety inspector who came from a Sunni Muslim family.
The couple dropped off their daughter with relatives on Wednesday morning, saying they had a doctor’s appointment, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said after talking with family.
Meanwhile, a visibly angry Clinton, speaking from Orlando as the San Bernardino attacks unfolded, shrieked: “It is time for us to say we are going to have comprehensive background checks, we are going to close the gun show loopholes”. The center provides social services to residents with developmental disabilities, but the shooting was focused on an office party for San Bernardino County staff. Baccari said that up until then Farook showed no signs of unusual behavior and was a reserved young man.
“He never ever talked about killing people or discussed politics, or said that he had problems at work”, Rahemaan Ali said.
Juda Myers, of Texas, said she got to know Thalasinos because of his support for an organization she founded that supports women who become pregnant after being raped.
Farook was raised in Southern California by parents who were born in Pakistan. Though the date of the posting was not clear, it listed his age as 22 so it could have been six years old.
A friend of a man killed in the rampage said he and Farook had a heated conversation about Islam two weeks before the attack.
Stephens said Farook replied that Americans don’t understand Islam.
Thalasinos, she said, believed he could engage in political discussions with people whose views differed from his own and that they could “come to a common ground”. Baccari said when the shooting started, he sought refuge in a bathroom and suffered minor wounds from shrapnel slicing through the wall.
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Police said the suspects were armed with two assault rifles and two handguns – all purchased legally, according to law enforcement sources – and were wearing tactical-style gear when they opened fire.
