Couple left baby at home, dressed up in assault clothing, picked up rifles and stormed the party
San Francisco : Investigators on Thursday were hunting for a motive that made a US-born Pakistani-origin couple to open indiscriminate firing at a Christmas party at a centre for people with disabilities in California, killing at least 14 people and injuring 17 others. It all started on Wednesday morning when California health inspector and US citizen Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife of two years, Tashfeen Malik, 27, dropped off their six-month-old baby at Farook’s mother’s place, saying they were going for a doctor’s appointment. By noon, according to police, the couple had donned assault clothing, armed themselves with rifles and stormed the holiday party. They fled after the carnage in a black SUV; hours later, after a lengthy chase, the attackers were killed by the police on a residential street, leaving the local community grieving for the innocent victims and wondering about the motive for the carnage.
President Obama said in an Oval Office statement that it was possible that the attacks were terrorist-related, but he said it was also possible they were work-related. At this stage, he said, law enforce-ment still does not know why this “terrible event occurred.” He said thec was investigating. Farook met his wife in Saudi Arabia and appeared to have been radicalized, law enforcement officials said. Investigators told CNN that Farook was also in touch by phone and via social media with more than one international terrorism subject. Farook’s brother-in-law Far-han Khan spoke at a press con-ference to say he was stunned to hear of his relative’s involvement in the shooting. Khan, who is married to Farook’s sister, said he last spoke to him about a week ago. He said he had ‘absolutely no idea why he would do this. I am shocked myself.’
The shooting occurred when more than 500 people were present at the centre. Farook had been at the party and left “angry” amid a dispute, the police said. He and his wife then returned with explosive devices, assault-style rifles and handguns. They were dressed in “dark, kind of tactical gear”, the police chief said. ‘‘We don’t have the motive at this point. We have not ruled out terrorism,” the official added. The attack was the deadliest shooting on US soil since the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012. Those who knew Farook, among them his colleagues at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department, described him as a devout Muslim but not someone who often talked about religion. A co-worker, who shared a cubicle with Farook, told the Los Angeles Times he and his young family appeared to be ‘living the American dream.’The federal agencies have yet to rule out terrorism, and are hunting for links to ISIS and other extremist groups. According to experts, it was not a spur of the moment killing and some kind of commando-style planning had gone into the mass killing.
