Law enforcement officials said Thursday Farook had been in touch with at least one global terrorism suspect that is under investigation by the FBI. They reportedly said at the time that they were on their way to a doctor’s appointment.
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The FBI is treating the shooting as a potential terrorist act, though the agency is far from concluding that it was, two law enforcement officials said.
Investigators did not immediately say if the couple had lived there.
Cops returned fire with 380 rounds, killing both suspects.
Nonetheless, police say, it appears that the couple put a great deal of planning into Wednesday’s attack – a dynamic they say indicates some sort of a long-term motive. Two of the wounded were listed in critical condition Thursday.
Investigators are now poring over social media, phone and internet history, global travel and contacts in the hope of establishing a motive for the attack.
“The amount of armaments that he had, the weapons and ammunition, there was obviously a mission here”.
“We are definitely making some movements that it is a possibility, but we don’t know that yet. It is also possible that this was workplace-related”, said Obama, who ordered flags flown at half-staff after the tragedy.
Farook has no known criminal record, Burguan said.
Hussam Ayloush, who heads the Los Angeles area chapter of the Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations says Mr Farook, a US-born citizen, was the son of Pakistani immigrants. Earlier this year, he travelled to Saudi Arabia, was gone for about a month and returned with a wife, Mr Baccari said. “I’m sure she got the visa in Pakistan”, State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news conference yesterday.
“It was unspeakable, the carnage that we were seeing, the number of people who were injured, the number who were already dead, and the pure panic on the faces of the individuals needing to be safe”. The two assault rifles and two handguns used had been purchased legally, the Associated Press reported.
Two weeks ago, Farook and one of the co-workers he killed, 52-year-old Nicholas Thalasinos, had a heated conversation about Islam, according to Kuuleme Stephens, a friend of the victim’s.
Farook was graduated from California State San Bernardino in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental health. They were the parents of a six-month-old baby girl who was staying with her grandmother at the time of the attack.
Farook co-worker Patrick Baccari said he sat at the same table as Farook at Wednesday’s office party, and Farook suddenly disappeared, leaving his coat on his chair.
He said there are steps that can be taken to make Americans safer, adding that officials in every level of government should come together on a bipartisan basis to make such shootings rare instead of normal.
The shooting lasted about five minutes, he said, and when he looked in the mirror he realized he was bleeding.
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You tell me. “I think it was terrorism”, Trump said.
