US shooting spree motive unknown
SAN BERNARDINO, California: A couple armed with assault-style rifles opened fire on the holiday party of his coworkers, killing 14 people and wounding 17, and were slain hours later in a shoot-out with police, authorities said.
The couple were identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, who San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said were in a relationship. They were believed to be the only shooters involved in an attack that required planning.
While the motive remained unclear, Burguan said: “We have not ruled out terrorism.” Farook was US-born, while Malik’s nationality was still undetermined.
Farook was a public health employee who attended the party, held in a conference building, and at some point stormed out, then returned with Malik to open fire on the celebration. The couple were dressed in assault-style clothing and also placed several bombs at various locations, which police detonated.
The shooting rampage marked the deadliest US gun violence since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, in which 27 people, including the gunman, were killed.
Wednesday’s carnage amplified concerns about gun violence and security in the wake of a deadly rampage on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs last week.
So far in 2015, there have been more than 350 shootings in which four or more people were wounded or killed, according to the crowd-sourced website shootingtracker.com
The attack appeared to differ from other recent US killing sprees in several ways, including the involvement of two people rather than one shooter.
A third person seen fleeing with the suspects was detained, but Burguan said he was not sure if that person was involved in the attack.
David Bowdich, an assistant regional FBI director, said authorities had not yet ruled out whether the shooting was an act of terrorism.
“It’s possible it goes down that road. It’s possible it does not,” he said.
At a news conference called by Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the brotherin-law of Farook, Farhan Khan, was bewildered by the news, saying: “Why would he do something like this? I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself.”
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR in the Los Angeles area, said the couple had been missing since Wednesday morning. Ayloush appealed to the public not to jump to conclusions.
“Is it work? Is it ragerelated? Is it mental illness? Is it extreme ideology?” he asked. “We just don’t know.”
The manhunt initially led police to a home in the neighbouring town of Redlands. The police pursued a suspected getaway vehicle that was seen leaving that address back to San Bernardino, where the shoot-out ensued.
Ayloush said the couple left their six-month-old-baby with Farook’s mother at that Redlands home early on Wednesday.
Twelve hours after the attack, the identities of the dead had still not been made public due to a delay in investigators examining the crime scene because of explosives left there, Burguan said.
The shooting and ensuing manhunt practically paralysed San Bernardino, a city of 220 000, with dozens of schools, public offices and hospitals placed on security alert.
President Barack Obama lamented the epidemic of gun violence that “has no parallel anywhere else in the world”.
And he repeated his call for Congress to pass “common sense gun safety laws”, including tougher background checks.