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FBI Searches Home Of San Bernardino Shooter's Former Neighbor
ABC-7 has acquired a slightly ridiculous photo of Enrique Marquez, the former neighbor of Syed Farook, one of the shooters responsible for Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino that killed 14. According to authorities, Marquez allegedly purchased the two "assault-style" rifles that were used in the attacks over three years ago.
Photo of neighbor who purportedly bought 2 rifles used in #SanBernardino attack https://t.co/zgyPtcJfQX pic.twitter.com/URHMFEupJt
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) December 6, 2015
According to NBC, the FBI searched the Riverside, California home of Marquez on Saturday as they work to determine whether he had any prior knowledge of the plot. They report:
During the search of Marquez's home, neighbors say, agents cut open the garage door with blow torches, used bomb-sniffing dogs, and temporarily detained his father and younger brother. The man's father told NBC News Saturday afternoon that he does not know where Marquez is and declined further comment.
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But according to the Washington Post, Marquez checked himself into a mental health facility after Wednesday's attack.
Federal officials said that they believed Marquez was a friend of shooter Syed Rizwan Farook's. "They had a common interest in mechanics and cars," neighbor Freddy Escamilla, told the Washington Post. "They would walk over to each other’s yards to talk to each other...It never seemed out of the ordinary." Another neighbor told NBC that Marquez and Farook had been close friends since childhood, but appeared to have recently grown apart.
FBI director James Comey said Marquez was not considered a suspect in the shooting, "at least at this point."
ABC-7 reports that Marquez lives in the Riverside home with his mother, stepdad and other siblings and that he mostly kept to himself.
Here's more of LAist's coverage of the San Bernardino shooting.
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