US massacre couple were Muslims with terror links
÷5,000 bullets and 12 bombs at their home ÷Devout pair first met in Saudi Arabia ÷They killed 14 with pistols and assault rifles
THE couple who slaughtered 14 people at an office party in California were radicalised Muslims who had been in contact with suspected terrorists, investigators said last night.
As the FBI insisted it would be ‘premature’ to call the massacre terrorism, details about the killers and their arsenal point increasingly towards the mass killing being an act of Islamic extremism.
The couple had stockpiled thousands of rounds of ammunition and a stack of homemade pipe bombs inside their suburban home.
Federal agents now privately believe the massacre at a San Bernardino centre for the mentally disabled was an act of terrorism.
Syed Farook, a 28-year- old devout Muslim American and his wife Tashfeen Malik, a 27year-old Pakistani he met online, appeared to have been planning a wave of attacks.
Investigators said the FBI has discovered that Farook has been in contact for several years with ‘extremists’ both in the US and abroad, including at least one in America who has been investigated for suspected terrorism.
On Wednesday morning, the couple put on masked commando gear before using high-powered assault rifles to mow down Farook’s work colleagues – including public health worker Sierra Clayborn and father-of-six Michael Wetzel – at a centre for the disabled. Another victim, Nicholas Thalasinos, 52, had been friendly with Farook and part of the same ‘little group’ of employees, according to his widow, Jennifer.
After spraying the room with up to 75 rounds, they left a pipe bomb connected to a remote control toy car in a bag before driving away. The couple, who had a six-month-old baby that they had left with Farook’s mother, died four hours later after a gun battle with police. Two officers were wounded, taking the total number of people seriously injured by the couple to 21.
They had more than 1,600 bullets with them when they were eventually gunned down. A third person was arrested but may not be connected to the shooting. Police later discovered the two killers had stockpiled nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition and had turned their home into a makeshift bomb factory.
They had produced 12 pipe bombs and had the tools to build more explosive devices. Yesterday FBI assistant director David Bowdich confirmed that Farook was a first-generation Pakistani American born in Chicago. He had
found a wife outside the US after advertising on two dating websites – where he described himself as coming from a ‘religious but modern’ Muslim family and said he liked to ‘hang out in the back yard doing target practice’.
Investigators believe he had visited Pakistan, and also travelled to Saudi Arabia on the Hajj – the annual pilgrimage to Mecca – where he met his future wife face-to-face for the first time.
The couple married and returned to the US in July 2014. Their daughter was born in May this year. Coworkers said Farook had no obvious grudge against his colleagues, who had reportedly thrown a party to celebrate his daughter’s birth.
Farook, who had a degree in envi- ronmental health and no criminal record, had worked for five years for the San Bernardino County Public Health Department inspecting restaurants, bakeries and pools.
Shocked colleagues said he was quiet, polite and popular. One described him as ‘living the American Dream’. But he had become increasingly absorbed in Islam and had grown a full beard in recent months. Farook’s father, also named Syed, said: ‘He’s Muslim. He was very religious. He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back.’
The gunman’s brother- in- law, Farhan Khan, said he was ‘shocked’ by the massacre. However neighbours of the couple in the suburb of Redlands said they had become suspicious of their behaviour – but didn’t report them for fear of being accused of racial stereotyping.
They said the couple worked late at night in their garage and received numerous packages to their home. As IS supporters praised the couple on social media last night, Barack Obama claimed the killers may have had ‘mixed motives’.
But New Jersey governor Chris Christie said: ‘I am convinced that was a terrorist attack. The President continues to wring his hands and say “we’ll see” but we need to get to grips with the idea that we are in the midst of the next World War.’