INSIDE KILLERS’ EVIL LAIR
Landlord opens door to wild media swarm
IT ONLY TOOK hours for the cramped killing factory — once full of ammo and pipe bombs — to become a live media circus.
TV crews and a swarm of reporters burst into the California rental home of Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, on Friday — pawing through their belongings and holding items up for the cameras.
The FBI said it was no longer a crime scene as of Thursday night — just a day after the murderous couple killed 14 and wounded 21 on a bloody rampage in San Bernardino. Even as dozens of journalists filled the place, some talking heads and critics questioned the wisdom of opening the apartment to reporters while the mass killing was still under investigation.
Boards were still nailed over the windows as MSNBC and CNN reporters — cameras and lights blazing — trampled past the elderly landlord who agreed to open the door for them.
Curious neighbors soon followed, gawking at the clutter of toys, clothes, pictures and personal belongings the FBI left behind.
At one point a man holding a large soda lumbered through the rooms. Even a child was seen wandering the small house.
An MSNBC reporter examined papers left on a desk and held up several licenses and identity cards for the camera. Some of them belonged to Farook relatives, showing addresses and Social Security numbers. MSNBC later issued an apology.
“We regret that we briefly showed images of photographs and identification cards that should not have been aired without review,” the network said.
The FBI said it had returned control of the house to the owner, Doyle Miller, clearing the way for the bizarre walk-through of the killers’ home.
There was no law enforcement agency present when Miller, 81, let reporters have access.
“They said the investigation was over,” he told the Daily News.
By nightfall, he was full of regret.
“Today was a total fiasco,” he said. “I made such a big mistake.”
Miller said he had yet to enter the garage — where the couple built explosives and stockpiled ammunition. Cops found 12 pipe bombs and well over 4,500 bullets in the property.
Farook had paid him $1,200 a month for the two-story house in Redlands, just a short drive from San Bernardino, he said. The modest home was a shambles on Friday.
A CNN reporter rooted
through the toys spilling from the white crib used by the terrorist couple’s 6-month-old daughter. Dozens of other playthings were scattered about.
Several prayer books and religious texts were thrown on a bed in the same room. They sat next to prayer beads and a parenting book on motherhood — plus a children’s book on how to teach Arabic.
A passport and other photos were stacked in loose piles.
In the bathroom, pictures were scattered around — and the couple’s drivers licenses were left amid the mess.
Pots stood on the cheap white stove in the kitchen, and dirty dishes filled the sink.
Baby formula and cans of food lined the counters.
A half-eaten piece of bread sat atop a washing machine, diapers and dirty sheets at the ready.
Reporters even cracked the couple’s fridge, revealing wellstocked shelves with fresh eggs.
CNN crews pointed their cameras and lights deep into a crawl space that opened above a closet.
A huge gold clock adorned one wall, while in another a baby car walker and tossed-about papers were piled next to a heap of red and gold rugs.
Several tapestries and calendars with intricate designs and what appeared to be religious texts hung on other walls.
Police are still searching for a motive to explain why Farook, 28, and his wife Malik, 27, went on their murderous rampage Wednesday.
Their 6-month-old baby was orphaned when they died later in a shootout with cops.
Law enforcement sources said Friday that Malik pledged allegiance to an ISIS leader on Facebook before the killing spree. The FBI said its investigating the mass shooting as an act of terrorism.
The landlord said that Farook had been “friendly” when the couple applied to live in the apartment.
“There was no red flags anywhere in their application,” Miller said.
Farook, his wife, their baby and Farook’s mother lived there, he said, and had a one-year lease. A pre-rental background check turned up nothing strange.
“I never talked to the lady at all. Never seen her,” he said of Malik.
Farook’s mother lived upstairs and knew nothing about the ammunition and bombs, the lawyers said.
Miller hasn’t heard from Farook’s mother or anyone else about retrieving the tenants’ belongings. Right now, everything is limbo.
“The police suggested I wait until I hear from them,” he said. “They can forget about the security deposit.”