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San Bernardino Shooting Suspects Were Married, With A 6-Month-Old Daughter
SWAT officers search for suspects after the shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Both suspects were killed in a shootout with police. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
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Police have identified the two dead suspects in the San Bernardino shooting as Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. The two were married and had a 6-month-old daughter together.
UPDATE: #SanBernardinoShooting suspects killed in gun battle were married; have baby: https://t.co/Pg6WSnrHN1 pic.twitter.com/a2ZAQq2a5G
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) December 3, 2015
Syed Rizwan Farook was a 28-year-old male who had worked at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department for five years, according to ABC 7's Rob McMillan. Colleagues say Farook had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and married his wife, who he met online, and had a baby. Colleagues told the L.A. Times that he was a devout Muslim, but rarely discussed his faith at work. "He was very quiet," said Griselda Reisinger, a former coworker. "He never struck me as a fanatic, he never struck me as suspicious."
His father, also named Syed Farook, told the New York Daily News, "He was very religious. He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back. He's Muslim."
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His cubicle-mate Patrick Baccari told the L.A. Times that Farook and his family appeared to be "living the American dream." Officials say Farook was a U.S. citizen who was born and raised in the country.
The second suspect was later identified by San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan as 29-year-old Tashfeen Malik. Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles, said the couple left their daughter with Farook's mother on Wednesday morning, according to the New York Times. The couple told her that they had a doctor's appointment.
Later that morning, Farook attended a work banquet at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. He stepped out of the event, "angry" after a dispute, and returned with his wife, armed and wearing tactical gear and opened fire. A total of 14 people were killed and 17 injured. Police later pursued the two in an S.U.V. just before 3 p.m., and both were killed in a shootout in a San Bernardino residential neighborhood.
Authorities believe that Farook and Malik are the only two suspects in the shooting. "We are reasonably confident we have two shooters, and two dead suspects," said Burguan.
Farhan Khan, brother in law of shooting suspect Sayed Farook, is now speaking in Anaheim @CBSLA @KCBSKCALDesk pic.twitter.com/8ImhOYHPDp
— Chris Ercoli (@CErcoliCBS2KCAL) December 3, 2015
On Wednesday night in Anaheim, hours after the pursuit and shootout with police that killed both Farook and Malik, Farook's brother-in-law Farhan Khan expressed remorse and shock over the events that took place earlier that day. "I just cannot express how sad I am for what happened today. I have no idea why he would do that," said Khan alongside leaders with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "My condolences to the people who lost their life."
Authorities are now searching a home in Redlands in connection with the shooting. Three explosive devices had been found at the scene of the shooting that were later detonated. Burguan said there had to be "some degree of planning that went into this," but authorities have yet to determine a motive.
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