Couple dressed for battle kill 14 in rampage
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A HEAVILY armed man and woman dressed for battle opened fire on a holiday banquet for the man’s co-workers, killing 14 people and seriously wounding more than a dozen others in a precision assault, authorities said. Hours later, they died in a shootout with police.
Authorities were trying to determine a motive, which could include workplace violence or terrorism.
Wednesday’s shooting happened at a social services center for the disabled where the male shooter’s colleagues with the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health were renting space for a celebration. It was the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since the attack at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, three years ago that left 26 children and adults dead.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan identified the male shooter as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, the other as Tashfeen Malik, 27, his wife or fiancee. Burguan said Farook was born in the United States; the chief said he did not know Malik’s background.
Yesterday, police and federal agents were searching a home in Redlands, about 10 kilometers from the massacre at Inland Regional Center. A black sedan parked outside was also searched. The home is where officers initially saw a vehicle matching the description of the attackers’ SUV in the hours before the final gunbattle that killed them. A bomb squad on Wednesday swept the home with robots.
Police didn’t say if the couple lived at the home. Public records show it is a possible residence of a relative of Farook’s.
Residents told KABC-TV that Redlands was a sleepy little town and expressed shock that the killers might be their neighbors.
The attackers invaded the center about 60 miles east of Los Angeles around 11am, opening fire in a conference area where county health officials were having an employee banquet, said Marybeth Feild, president and CEO of the nonprofit center.
“They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission,” Burguan said.
Farook attended the event before leaving — and returning to kill.
Co-worker Patrick Baccari said he was sitting at the same table as Farook, who suddenly disappeared, leaving his coat on his chair. Baccari said when the shooting started, he sought refuge in a bathroom and suffered minor wounds from shrapnel slicing through the wall.
Baccari described Farook as reserved and said he showed no signs of unusual behavior. Earlier this year he traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a wife, later growing a beard, Baccari said.
The FBI is investigating several possible motives, including workplace violence and terrorism, according to David Bowdich, assistant director of the bureau’s Los Angeles office.
Farook was a restaurant inspector, according to public records. Police chief Burguan said he had been a county employee for five years.
The couple dropped off their 6-month-old daughter with relatives on Wednesday, saying they had a doctor’s appointment, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said after talking with relatives.
Farhan Khan, who is married to Farook’s sister, told reporters he last spoke to his brother-in-law a week ago. He said he was in shock, condemned the violence, and had “absolutely no idea why he would do this.”
About four hours after the morning carnage, police hunting for the killers riddled a black SUV with gunfire in a shootout 3 kilometers from the center. Farook and Malik were found with assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns, and were wearing “assault-style clothing” with ammunition attached, authorities said.
Earlier, as the day’s first bursts of gunfire echoed through the large three-building complex, some people locked themselves in offices, desperately waiting for police and contacting loved ones.
“People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office,” Terry Petit’s daughter, who works at the center, texted him.
Petit choked back tears as he read his daughter’s words for reporters outside the center, where social workers find jobs, housing and transport and provide other services to people with disabilities such as autism and cerebral palsy.
That the violence happened at a place dedicated to helping such people — even if they were not targeted — made it even harder for some to comprehend.
“These are all disabled kids, very disabled,” said Sherry Esquerra, who was searching for her daughter and son-in-law, both of whom work at the center. “She gets all the services she possibly could for these kids. So I just don’t understand why somebody would come in and start shooting.”
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