Islamic extremists ignored contact attempts by one of the San Bernardino shooters

Tashfeen Malik, the Pakistan-born assailant who killed 14 people with her husband at a holiday party, attempted to contact Islamic militant groups and was ignored, USA government sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Authorities say her son, Enrique Marquez, who was related through marriage to shooter Syed Farook, may have planned a previous attack with Farook.

The online communications recovered so far indicate that the two killers had become radicalized long before carrying out last week’s attack.

“We are working very hard to see if anyone else was involved in assisting, equipping or helping them, ” he said.

Funerals continue for a few of the 14 victims who lost their lives during the massacre in the Inland Empire of Southern California as FBI investigators return to seek for clues in a San Bernardino lake now into last week’s fatal shooting.

In a news conference held around 3pm PST, David Bowdich, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said that they were following up on a lead that indicated the two shooters came into the area.

Bowdich added that search for evidentiary items in the lake could take days, and that there is nothing unsafe in the immediate area.

The government is already facing scrutiny for allowing Malik into the USA on a fiance visa a year ago. Officials say they discussed some type of attack around 2012 but dropped the idea after four men were arrested in Riverside, Calif., in a separate plan to kill Americans in Afghanistan, according to a senior official.

“We are building a timeline of everything we know to determine if other contacts were made that day”, Bowdich said.

It’s unclear how many groups Malik tried to contact, but the organizations included al Qaeda’s Syria-based affiliate, the Nusrah Front, according to the government sources.

“The current impression is that these two people were acting alone”, U.S. senator Angus King of ME told CNN after the briefing.

Representative Bob Goodlatte, Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told reporters afterward that there were people in the community who saw suspicious activity at the shooters’ house but decided not to tell authorities “for a variety of reasons”.

Authorities have said that the break-up of that plot likely spooked Farook and his friend Enrique Marquez, who were planning an attack of their own. That official said the woman did not appear for an interview earlier this week for her permanent resident application. He has not been charged with a crime, but could face charges if it turns out he did not properly transfer the guns to Farook. “The official said Facebook is cooperating with law enforcement”.

While Marquez has spoken to agents about his ties to Farook, federal officials are still working to verify the information he has provided, the source said.

Hundreds have gathered beneath an overcast sky to remember 27-year-old Yvette Velasco in the first funeral for a victim of the San Bernardino shooting.