in the
hours after a mass shooting that left 14 dead and dozens injured—the
deadliest mass shooting since the 2012 Newtown massacre—investigators
identified Syed Farook, a U.S. citizen and employee of the San
Bernardino County’s public-health department, as one of the two
shooters. They have yet to identify a motive.
So far, says assistant F.B.I. director
David Bowdich, terrorism has not been ruled out, but San Bernardino police chief
Jarrod Burguan suggested the incident could have been a workplace dispute that turned violent.
Farook, 28, and his new wife, 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik, both died
after a car chase and a shootout with the police, leaving behind a
6-month-old child. (The two wed after an online courtship, with Farook
going to Saudi Arabia to meet her.) An officer was wounded as well, but
is expected to make a full recovery.
According to the
Los Angeles Times,
the shooting occurred during Farook’s office holiday party, held in a
rented room in the Inland Regional Center. Disappearing during a group
photo, Farook soon came back with his wife, heavily armed and wearing
tactical gear, and began firing into the crowd of co-workers.
Colleagues were shocked and confused that Farook would do such a thing, with one telling the
L.A. Times
that he appeared to be “living the American dream,” and another saying
that the office had thrown a baby shower for him recently.
Farook left the party “under some circumstances that were described as angry,” said Burguan.
Family members also told the press that they were blindsided by the
attacks: in a press conference held at the L.A. chapter of the Council
of American-Islamic Relations, Farook’s brother-in-law
Farhad Khan
expressed his condolences and said he had “no idea why he would do
something like this. . . . I am in shock myself.” CAIR officials also
vigorously condemned the shooting.
Farook’s father, also named
Syed Farook, told the
New York Daily News that his son was “very religious.”
Vocativ reports that while extremists on ISIS-affiliated Web forums celebrated the shooting, they did not take responsibility for it.
Farook and Malik used four firearms—two assault rifles and two
handguns—and so far authorities have determined that at least two of
those guns were purchased legally.
The shooting shut down much of San Bernardino on Wednesday afternoon,
with all city schools and government buildings placed on lockdown and
the public advised to stay indoors. Several witnesses told the
L.A. Times
how they watched the day unfold, from the disbelief that a shooting was
actually occurring in their hometown (“It’s shocking that it’s right
across the way,” a local tech worker said) to the desperate attempts to
find loved ones.
In a statement that echoed the dozens of similar statements he gave this year,
President Barack Obama
acknowledged the victims and their families, and added: “The one thing
we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this
country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.”
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