The Los Angeles Times digs into the biography of Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, killed yesterday in the search for a suspect who killed 14 and wounded 17 more after opening fire on a county health department luncheon in San Bernardino, Calif. His wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, also was killed.
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Farook, an American citizen, worked for the San Bernardino County Department of Health for the past few years and had a young daughter, his shocked father told the Daily News. The LA Times reported that Farook travelled to Saudi Arabia to see Malik after meeting her online.
Farook was born in IL after his parents immigrated to the USA from Pakistan, Ayloush told The Washington Post.
Coworkers described Farook as reserved and quiet, but well-liked. “We don’t know why”.
“Mr. Farook is a county employee”. At some point he left in anger, Burguan says.
They were legally purchased, police said. In October, a gunman killed nine people at a college in OR, and in June, a white gunman killed nine black churchgoers in SC.
So far in 2015, there have been more than 350 shootings in which four or more people were wounded, according to the crowd-sourced website shootingtracker.com, which keeps a running tally of USA gun violence. It is unclear how many people were at the facility at the time of the shooting.
Baccari was at the Wednesday holiday party for health workers, hosted at a state-run center for people with developmental disabilities.
The brother-in-law of Syed Farook said he was stunned to hear of his involvement in the shooting.
Police didn’t immediately say if the couple lived at the home.
When Farook and Malik left the area around the Redlands house in an SUV, police pursued.
One officer was wounded, but his injuries were not life-threatening, Burguan said.
The suspects possessed multiple explosives, according to authorities.
In a 5 p.m. Eastern press conference, Burguan said up to three shooters entered the building, opened fire, and eventually fled in a dark SUV.
A third suspect is also in custody; police are working to determine whether that person was involved in the attack. He seemed angry, witnesses told police.
Investigators on Thursday were trying to learn why the couple left behind their baby daughter and went on the rampage – the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since the Newtown, Connecticut, school tragedy three years ago that left 26 children and adults dead. Hours later, they died in a shootout with officers.
Authorities have not identified a motive for the shooting.
That’s the sort of thing you bring if you want to make videos to terrorize other people, and rally others to their cause or ideology… it also would explain why they left the scene instead of staying to shoot it out with police at the social services facility.
“This is not what we stand for”, Lynch said.
In a Wednesday evening news conference, a visibly shaken Farhan Khan, Farook’s brother-in-law, said, “I have no idea why he would do something like this”, and conveyed his “family’s sadness for what happened”. Family members told The Associated Press the couple was married.
“As we await the facts from the chaos on the ground, I can only pray that America’s leaders will do something – anything – that prevents more communities from knowing this sorrow”. “We offer our heartfelt prayers and condolences to the injured, to the families of those who have been killed….”
Though President Barack Obama and others have renewed calls for gun control reforms in the wake of this and other mass shootings, Washington has repeatedly failed to pass any meaningful legislation.
City spokesman Carl Baker said Redlands police are assisting San Bernardino police in the search connected to today’s shooting.
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Obama says it’s possible the massacre was related to terrorism but that authorities still don’t know.
