Domestic terrorismHusband and wife, identified as San Bernardino attackers, killed in shootout with police
Police shot and killed a husband and wife, both in their late 20s, after the two killed fourteen people and injured seventeen at the Inland Regional Center, a social service center in Sam Bernardino, a working-class community of 200,000 residents about sixty miles east of Los Angeles. The two were identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his Tashfeen Malik, 27 (some reports noted that it was not clear whether or not the two had actually married). The couple had a 6-month old daughter.
San Bernadino SWAT team in conference // Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Police shot and killed a husband and wife, both in their late 20s, after the two killed fourteen people and injured seventeen at the Inland Regional Center, a social service center in Sam Bernardino, a working-class community of 200,000 residents about sixty miles east of Los Angeles. The two were killed in the black SUV, which was surrounded by the police in a residential neighborhood a few miles away from the scene of the original attack. The two refused to heed calls to surrender, and returned fire from inside their vehicle until they were killed.
A third person was arrested at the scene, but the police say they don not yet know what role, if any, he played in the attack.
The two were identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his Tashfeen Malik, 27 (some reports noted that it was not clear whether or not the two had actually married). The couple had a 6-month old daughter.
Farook was born in the United States and worked as an environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County, inspecting restaurants for health violations.
He also inspected public swimming pools at locations which included apartment complexes, senior citizens housing, and country clubs. Publicly available records show that he was in that position as recently as July (and may be later, but the records are not available).
On Wednesday he was at the social service center with other employees of his department, where they held their annual holiday gathering. At about 11:00 a.m., after spending about an hour at the gathering, he left for the parking lot and returned with his wife, both carrying armed .223-caliber assault rifles and semiautomatic handguns.
The couple also left three explosive devices in the building, but they were defused by the police.
Malik., 27-year-old, was born in Pakistan and spent several years in Saudi Arabia before coming to the United States.
Neighbors and family relatives say she married Farook two years ago, but the exact legal status of the relationship is not clear. The couple had a six-month-old baby girl.
Early Wednesday, before they embarked on their deadly attack, the couple left the baby with Farook’s mother in the nearby city of Redlands, telling her they were going to attend a doctor’s appointment for the wife.
A senior American law enforcement official told the New York Times that Farook had not been the target of any active terrorism investigation, and he was not someone the FBI had been concerned about before Wednesday’s shooting. Other officials said the FBI was looking into a possible connection between Farook and at least one person who was investigated for terrorism a few years ago.
