Another massacre in America
AFTER A ROW AT A CHRISTMAS PARTY, SYED FAROOK AND TASHFEEN MALIK LEFT IN A HUFF. THEY RETURNED WITH GUNS AND KILLED 14 PEOPLE, WOUNDING 17 OTHERS. WHY?
On Wednesday morning, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, left their 6-month-old daughter with Farook’s mother, telling her they were dipping out for a doctor’s appointment, a relative said.
By nightfall, it was clear that was a ruse. Police in San Bernardino, California, said the couple spent the day carrying out a rampage at a social services centre that killed at least 14 people before leading officers on a sprawling chase that ended with the two dead in a gunfight in a suburban neighbourhood.
Before the attack, Farook, 28, who was born in Illinois and whose parents are from Pakistan, joined colleagues at an annual holiday party for the San Bernardino County Public Health Department, where he had worked for five years as an environmental inspector, officials said. He had attended the same party the year before, and he did not appear out of place.
Soon, however, he stormed out. The nature of the dispute was not clear, but when he returned with his wife, 27, both of them were dressed in tactical gear and carrying assault rifles, officials said. That level of preparation is among the factors investigators are weighing as they examine a motive for the attack.
Planned attack
Chief Jarrod Burguan of the San Bernardino Police Department said at a news conference that the attack did not seem to be “a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
A picture began to emerge on Wednesday night of how the couple hid their plan from even close relatives, as Farook’s brother-in-law held a news conference in Anaheim during which he expressed sorrow for the victims and bafflement at what had driven the couple to commit such a crime.
“I have no idea why would he do that,” said the brother-inlaw, Farhan Khan, who last spoke to Farook a week ago. He added: “I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself.”
It was hours after Farook and his wife had left their baby with Farook’s mother, whose name was not released, that she learnt there had been a shooting at his work party, said Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations in Los Angeles, which helped organise the news conference with Khan. At first, the baby’s grandmother was tense with concern about her family. Then she received a call — her son had been named as a suspect.
Ayloush urged people not to jump to conclusions regarding a motive. “Is it work?” he said. “Rage-related? Is it mental illness? Extreme ideology?”
The authorities could not offer an answer either, with Burguan saying that he was not aware of the suspects’ having any previous contact with law enforcement. He added, “We have not ruled out terrorism.”
The authorities used robots on Wednesday night to sweep a townhouse where Farook had lived with his mother and disposed of explosive devices left at the scene of the attack.
Farook inspected restaurants, bakeries and public swimming pools for the county department, according to inspection reports. Among his duties were checking chlorine levels, screening handwashing facilities and making sure food surfaces were clean. He was registered as an environmental health specialist with the California Department of Public Health, state records indicate.
His name appeared on a county inspection report as recently as October 1, for a Mexican restaurant in Rialto. The restaurant’s employees said Wednesday night that they did not remember him. Online records indicate he was paid about $70,000 (Dh250,000) a year.
He had been married to Malik for two years.
It is extremely rare for a mass shooting in America to have multiple perpetrators — and even more so for one of them to be a woman.
The California couple join a long roster of convicted and alleged mass shooters from recent years. But in contrast to those who have committed such acts of violence in the past, Farook and Malik do not appear so far to have left a digital trail that could point to their motives.
Christopher Harper-Mercer, the 26-year-old who fatally shot nine people and then killed himself at a community college in Oregon this October, left behind social media profiles that indicated an affinity with Nazism, anti-religious views and a desire to “lash out at society.”
Charleston church shooting suspect Dylann Roof posted Facebook photos of himself wearing emblems of white supremacist movements, and owned a website containing a manifesto against racial minorities.
Baby registry
But where Farook and Malik are concerned, what traces of them can be found on the internet are benign: A baby registry that appeared to be in Malik’s name, and an undated online dating profile that appeared to be Farook’s, in which, among other things, he stated an interest in target shooting.
The registry page cites a May due date in Riverside, which corresponds with reports that the couple’s child is 6 months old and the fact that they were discovered by police outside a residence less than half an hour away from Riverside.
Malik’s requests are few: diapers, baby wash, swabs and convertible car seat.
The dating profile, posted to a site “for people with disabilities and second marriage,” includes a description that matches what is known of Farook so far.
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 recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, coming back with a wife he had met online. He was a devout Muslim, but didn’t discuss religion at work.