SAN BERNARDINO SHOOTINGS
AUTHORITIES ARE STITCHING TOGETHER DETAILS TO FIND OUT WHAT WOULD PROMPT PARENTS OF A SIX-MONTH-OLD GIRL TO BECOME MASS MURDERERS
Details of suspected attackers begin to emerge, but motive still a mystery to investigators
• Syed Rizwan Farook was looking for a wife. On at least two online sites, he posted details for prospective brides. “Religious but modern,” he apparently wrote on one. He made a point of noting his American citizenship on another.
How he made contact with Pakistan-born Tashfeen Malik remains unclear. But family members said Farook travelled to Saudi Arabia, where Malik was living, and that they returned to Southern California as a couple in 2014 and began a life in quiet Redlands, an area of ranch houses and once lush lawns now browned by drought.
Wednesday morning, they dropped off their sixmonth-old daughter with Farook’s mother, according to family members. Sometime around midday, police say they donned masks and armed themselves with assault rifles and handguns before storming a holiday party hosted by the county health agency where Farook worked. At least 14 people died. Hours later, 28-year-old Farook and 27-year-old Malik were dead by police gunfire just three kilometres from the massacre site.
Details about the lives and views of the two suspected assailants are still incomplete.
But as authorities stitch together the events surrounding the latest U.S. mass shooting, two disparate portraits emerge — one of American suburban stability and the other of immigrant reinvention — that seem to intersect somewhere in the Pakistani diaspora.
Also still puzzling investigators is what drove the two suspected attackers to turn the holiday party into a killing zone. It is rare for a mass shooting in America to have multiple perpetrators — and even more so for one of them to be a woman.
“We have not ruled out terrorism,” said San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles, said Farook and Malik had been married for two years.
The couple told the grandmother that they had a doctor’s appointment and needed her to take care of the child, Ayloush said.
“I have no idea why he would do something like this,” Farhan Khan, who is married to Farook’s sister, said at a news conference held by CAIR late Wednesday.
Farook — born in Illinois to Pakistani immigrant parents — was a San Bernardino County employee who had worked for five years as an environmental health specialist in the public health department, which was hosting the holiday party where the shooting occurred. According to state employee records, he made $71,230 in 2013.
Malik was born in Pakistan and spent time in Saudi Arabia before marrying Farook, said Ayloush.
The couple join a long roster of convicted and alleged mass shooters from recent years. But in contrast to many others, Farook and Malik do not appear so far to have left a digital trail that could point to their motives.
The traces of them that can be found on the Internet are relatively benign: a baby registry that appeared to be in Malik’s name, and undated online dating profiles that appeared to be Farook’s. Among other things, he stated an interest in target shooting.
The baby registry page cites a May due date in Riverside, which is near San Bernardino. Malik’s requests are modest: diapers, baby wash, swabs and a convertible car seat.
Another site — described as “for people with disabilities and second marriage” — includes a description that appears to match Farook.
The “About Him” section on the iMilap.com site introduces someone who works for the county as a “health, safety and envorimental (sic) inspector.” It further states that he is from a religious but modern family of four, lives with his parents and enjoys working on cars as well as “just hang out in backyard doing target pratice (sic) with younger sister and friends.”
He added that he enjoyed working on vintage and modern cars, and read religious books while enjoying eating out sometimes.
On another matchmaker site, Dubaimatrimonial. com, a person believed to be Farook described himself as having family roots in Karachi, noting he was born in Chicago and was living in Los Angeles as an American citizen.
Farook graduated from California State University at San Bernardino with a degree in environmental health in 2009, according to the university.
His seemingly steady persona — high school, college, career — stands in contrast, however, with the apparently turbulent home life of his parents for more than a decade.
The couple, Rafia and Syed Farook, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2002, according to county documents.
Four years later, Rafia submitted paperwork for a separation after more than 24 years of marriage, citing verbal and physical harassment and describing her husband as “irresponsible, negligent and an alcoholic.” Conditions were put in place for visitation with their daughter, Eba, who was born in 1991 — four years after her brother, the alleged shooter.
A series of court filings were made between 2006 and 2012 related to their separation. In one 2008 document, the hit from the U.S. financial crisis appeared to be noted: Showing the estimated value of their Riverside home at $175,000 but owing
HE NEVER STRUCK ME AS A FANATIC; HE NEVER STRUCK ME AS SUSPICIOUS.
about $100,000 more. A judge granted her petition for a divorce earlier this year.
In interviews with the Los Angeles Times, Syed Farook’s co-workers in the public health department said he was “quiet and polite, with no obvious grudges.”
“He never struck me as a fanatic; he never struck me as suspicious,” Griselda Reisinger said.
Fellow inspectors Patrick Baccari and Christian Nwadike said the “tall, thin young man with a full beard” rarely started conversations, but he was well-liked and spent a lot of time in the field.
They said Farook was a devout Muslim but didn’t discuss religion at work.
Reports show that Farook inspected public pools and eating establishments. His job required him to check the cleanliness of food surfaces and cooling methods, analyze chlorine levels and test kitchen equipment.