Enrique Marquez Jr. charged in San Bernardino shooting

Marquez, 24, was charged Thursday with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists for plotting with gunman Syed Rizwan Farook to launch attacks in 2011 and 2012 at a community college and congested freeway at rush hour that they never carried out.

Mr Marquez is expected to be formally charged on Monday and to enter a plea on 6 January. Earlier this month, however, Farook and his wife-turned-accomplice Tashfeen Malik went on to kill 14 people in an attack on an office holiday party in San Bernardino.

Hours after the massacre, a distressed Marquez called 911 to say he wanted to kill himself and that Farook had used a weapon bought by Marquez, according to an Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit. Now the feds are poised to file criminal charges against Marquez, a neighbor and friend to the Muslim couple that carried out the murderous rampage at the Inland Regional Center. The document says Marquez waived his right to an attorney during questioning, but a public defender has since been appointed to him. In addition to the terrorism charge, Marquez faces a count of lying on gun purchase forms to hide that he was really buying them for Farook, and one of defrauding the immigration system by entering into a sham marriage with a Russian immigrant.

Marquez bought two assault rifles for Farook in 2011 and 2012 so that they could be used in their 2012 plot, he told investigators.

Decker said there was no evidence that Marquez took part in December 2 attack or had prior knowledge of it.

The pair planned to throw pipe bombs into the cafeteria at Riverside Community College “to maximize casualties”, Marquez said. Marquez allegedly told investigators they chose a specific section of the 91 Freeway because there were no exits and it would increase the number of targets, according to the news release.

“Over the next few years, Farook provided Marquez with radical Islamic materials, and by 2011, Marquez spent most of his time at Farook’s residence listening to lectures and watching videos involving radical Islamic content”, the FBI’s statement said.

2005 – Marquez and his family move next door to the Farooks, and Syed Rizwan Farook introduces him to Islam.

Marquez: Yeah. And then he [unintelligible].

FBI investigators have found no evidence Farook and Malik were carrying out instructions from an overseas terror network or US based extremist group, officials said earlier this week.

Others who crossed paths with Marquez during his formative years said he left little impression, other than being quiet and alone. He is charged with buying the guns under false pretences and conspiring to support terrorism. The following year, Farook married his accomplice in the San Bernardino shootings, Malik.

Police locate suspected shooters Farook and Malik after “law enforcement observed two individuals” near their Redlands, California, home.

Four years ago, Marquez said, he and Farook planned to toss pipe bombs into the cafeteria at Riverside City College and then shoot people as they fled. Here’s David Ross. Reporter: The San Bernardino terror plots took shape in a place of American flags, shopping malls and this quiet residential block, where officials tonight say, as in nearly every homegrown terror case, someone had to know what was going on.

President Barack Obama is expected to travel to San Bernardino on Friday to meet privately with families of the victims of this month’s attack.