![[Image courtesy: ABC7]](https://theavtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ABC7-image.jpg)
Authorities identified the two dead shooters, a man and a woman, as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27. According to KCAL9 the two suspects were in a relationship and have a 6-month-old baby.
Farook was born in the U.S. and was an environmental specialist with San Bernardino County for five years, according to authorities.
“Based upon what we have seen and based upon how they were equipped there had to have been some degree of planning to this,” San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said. “I don’t think they just ran home, put on these types of tactical clothes, grabbed guns and came back on a spur of the moment thing.”
Farhan Khan, who said he was the husband of Farook’s sister, said his entire family is “shocked and very sorry for what happened.”
“We had no idea something (like) this could happen,” Khan said at an Anaheim news conference organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Details of the shooting were still sketchy and the motivations for the attack at the San Bernardino treatment center, at 1365 S. Waterman Ave., were not immediately known.
Police and witnesses said the suspected assailants, Farook and Malik, walked into what was believed to be a holiday party in a conference room and started shooting.
Authorities initially said the shooting involved as many as three people who were possibly wearing body armor and armed with “long guns.” They fled the scene in a dark-colored SUV.
According to Burguan, the investigation led police to a home in Redlands, and as officers approached, Farook and Malik fled in a dark-colored SUV. A pursuit ensued, ending back in San Bernardino, where a gun battle broke out.
Farook and Malik were killed in the shootout, Burguan said. He said both suspects were armed with assault rifles and handguns.
A third person who fled from the shooting scene was detained after an extensive search, but Burguan said it was not immediately clear if that person was involved in the Inland Regional Center shooting.
One police officer was wounded in the shooting, apparently from a ricochet, but was not seriously injured.
As darkness fell, police were working to search the home in Redlands. Burguan noted that the suspects in the morning shooting left what appeared to be an explosive device at the Inland Regional Center and a bomb squad was still working to remove it, but the discovery was prompting officers to act with care as they approach the Redlands home.
Agents from the Los Angeles field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were sent to the scene of the morning shooting, according to the federal agency. Officials from the FBI were also dispatched.
“We are confirming that we are responding to assist San Bernardino authorities who have the lead on the investigation,” according to Laura Eimiller of the FBI.
Late Wednesday afternoon, an FBI spokesman said the shooting had not yet been determined to be an act of terrorism, but it was being explored as a possibility.
Agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded to the shooting.
President Barack Obama was briefed on the shooting. Gov. Jerry Brown was also briefed and “is closely monitoring this disturbing and ongoing situation unfolding in San Bernardino,” according to the governor’s Twitter page.
According to the facility’s Facebook page, the Inland Regional Center has nearly 670 staff members and provides services to more than 30,200 people with developmental disabilities and their families in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
“As an agency among agencies, Inland Regional Center coordinates with generic services to normalize the lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families by working to include them in the everyday routines and life rhythms of the community and by facilitating needed supports for them,” according to the center’s Facebook page.
As the shooting investigation unfolded, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department issued a reminder that people can take steps to try to protect themselves in an active-shooter situation. The department has a website and video available with tips at activeshooter.lasd.org.
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SocietyofLies says
Wasn’t the PATRIOT Act passed to prevent this sort of thing? Didn’t we spend 6 trillion dollars invading Iraq to prevent this sort of thing? Um, was it the invasion of Afghanistan to take down the terrorist cells to prevent this sort of thing? No, that’s not it. So, 6 trillion dollars later, countless laws have been passed, hospitals bombed, endless death and destruction, and nothing has changed. The United States is simply a society of lies and liars creating terrorists than will ever be able to kill them-and too stupid to change course.
Philip says
I am starting a new thread on the recent violence here, instead of “Readers Speak Out.”
This interesting article on the shooter’s family life and recent marriage to a woman from Saudi Arabia is definitely eye-opening.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-san-bernardino-shooter-endured-turbulent-home-life-according-to-court-documents-20151203-story.html
Tim Scott says
Could you elaborate on what you found to be “eye opening”? The guy had the typical broken home/abusive parent that most rage killers have had, so I don’t see anything really remarkable here myself. Of course, I’m not in the “he’s ethnic Pakistani, must be al-queda, Chicago branch” crowd. I guess for them finding out that this was a typical downtrodden American that drew a feeling of power from shooting guns until that wasn’t sufficient so he had to shoot people might be a bit of a shock.
Philip says
Are watching the latest news updates on the woman shooter’s allegiance to ISIS, Tim? Or was she just an American gun-nut? She recently moved here on a Fiance Visa.
Also tell your alter-ego William, that I subscribe to Mark Twain’s philosophy when it comes to arguing with an idiot – other’s won’t be able to tell the difference. So I choose not to respond to idiots.
Thanks for your time, and for reading the article. I’m sorry you didn’t find it eye-opening, but I don’t feel the need to elaborate on every opinion I state.
Oh, and how would you like that egg prepared, buddy?
Sunny side up or over easy with the yolk dripping from your nose?
Tim Scott says
While my other answer is pending moderation…
Do you realize the contradictory revelation of ignorance in the statement “female shooter’s allegiance to ISIS”? Or would actually knowing about what you are talking about be too much to ask of you?
For those who do not know, ISIS follows an interpretation of Islam that PROHIBITS women in combat roles. There is no indication that they are going to make exceptions in support of American gender equity principles.
Muzzled says
What is this taqiya that I read about?
Billandtimsbogusanswers says
Except they have strapped bombs on them,and tell them where to go.that’s combat
Billandtimsbogusanswers says
News flash, fbi says terrorists, confirming what all of us already knew, well almost all of us.
William says
Hey, RWNJs
Was it a ‘terrorist act’ or ‘acts of terrorism’?
Remember when that was a big deal on the right and fox ‘news’ regarding Benghazi.
They are so hung up on what to call something yet the right just makes up their own language anyway all the time, i.e. ‘death taxes’ and stuff like that. They are so crazy and we have some here for our enjoyment.
W says
@Tim Scott. Pledging allegiance to ISIS doesn’t mean they approved of her role in combat. She posted her support and allegiance to them. So maybe you need to actually know what you are talking about. Know it all attitude doesn’t work. It must be very upsetting to you liberals that the facts on these two Islamic Musslim terrorist killers coming out showing how bad Obama’s do nothing policy is putting our country in danger.
Tim Scott says
Great point. An online “pledge to Isis” does, in fact, not mean that these killers were connected to Isis in ANY WAY AT ALL. So let’s see…who was it that was using this as “evidence” that this was some sort of Isis plot?