Obama: ‘We All Have A Part To Play’ In Stopping Gun Violence

Other survivors have been sharing their stories about what happened on that tragic day inside the nonprofit facility that serves people who have developmental disabilities, where two gunmen entered and began shooting inside a holiday banquet being held by the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health.

REUTERS/Mike BlakeFBI and police investigators examine evidence at the scene around the area of the SUV where two suspects were shot by police following a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, December 3.

“We still don’t have the motive”, Chief Burguan said, adding that because “they sprayed the room with bullets”, it was not clear if anyone in particular was targeted.

Farhan Khan told NBC News that his brother-in-law Farook and wife left their baby girl with Farook’s mother on Wednesday, claiming they they had a doctor’s appointment.

Police had originally sought as many as three attackers, but Burguan said he was “reasonably confident at this point that we have two shooters and we have two suspects who’re deceased”.

In San Bernardino, a Southern California city of 214,000, the victims ranged in age from 26 to 60.

“We condemn this senseless and horrific act of violence in the strongest possible terms”, said Ahsan Khan, president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community chapter in Los Angeles.

Burguan indicated the shooting seemed to involve planning. Farook was born in the U.S. Family members say they were married and had a 6-month-old daughter. She called her sister Stephanie Baldwin, thinking it might be time to say goodbye.

“We do not know the extent of their plans, and we do not know their motivations”, Obama said from the Oval Office.

Two of the guns were purchased by someone “associated with this investigation”, while the buyer of the other two was not linked to the investigation, she said.

The home is where officers initially saw a vehicle matching the description of the suspects’ SUV in the hours before the final gun battle that killed them. 223 caliber rifles, handguns and wearing tactical gear.

“Certainly they were equipped and they could have continued to do another attack … we intercepted them”, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said during a news conference Thursday.

But he said it’s not enough to rely on law enforcement to respond to shootings.

Farook attended the banquet at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino before the shooting.

President Barack Obama, who ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until Monday, cautioned the motive for the carnage was not yet known, but a terror attack could not be ruled out.

“There was obviously a mission here”, said David Bowdich, the FBI’s assistant director of the Los Angeles office.

But Obama took a less angry tone than he has used after other recent mass shootings, and sought to reassure Americans who are nervous after attacks in Paris by Islamic State militants last month.

“These were people that came prepared”, Burguan said.

Hospital officials said Thursday morning that two patients remain in critical condition, while three are in stable condition.

Former FBI criminal profiler Gregg McCrary said the FBI defines terrorism as “use of force or violence against civilians or property to further a political or social objective”. After their rampage, there were reportedly 14 people dead with up to 17 people injured.

“We’re going to have to, I think, search ourselves as a society to make sure that we can take basic steps that would make it harder, not impossible, but harder for individuals to get access to weapons”, he said.