San Bernardino attacker’s friend to be charged

Enrique Marquez, 24, legally purchased the rifles from an authorized gun dealer in 2011 and 2012, but he could face legal problems because there was no record of any transfer of the weapons from him to Syed Rizwan Farook or Farook’s wife, Tashfeen Malik, the radical Muslim couple who carried out the December 2 attack on a social services office in California.

Knowingly buying a firearm for someone else is illegal, but what remains unclear is if Marquez had any knowledge of Farook and Tashfeen Malik’s plans before the attack. He and Farook had known each other for years; Marquez allegedly converted to Islam around 2008. The FBI is investigating whether the rifles Marquez bought were intended for use in the planned 2012 attack, the officials said.

Marquez and Farook were neighbors in Riverside, California, until Farook and Malik moved recently to nearby Redlands.

Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said specialized divers with the agency concluded their search on Saturday of a San Bernardino lake for abandoned evidence. He has since become the key lead in the FBI’s investigation into the massacre, waiving his right to silence and self incrimination, and reportedly cooperating fully with authorities. “It was a pleasure”, he wrote, shortly before checking himself into a local mental health facility, according to the Post. “They fired as many as 150 shots that day, and in their home and in the sport utility vehicle they were driving, the police found another rifle, thousands of rounds of ammunitions, a dozen pipe bombs, and equipment for making more bombs”, the Times reported.

Marquez was a former neighbour of Farook. Both U.S.-born Farook and Pakistan native Malik expressed commitment to Islamic jihad and martyrdom in direct, private online messages in late 2013, months before Malik moved to the United States to live with Farook, FBI Director James Comey has said. Should the friend and relative of Syed Farook be charged and convicted with conspiracy to commit murder or terrorism, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is set to visit San Bernardino tomorrow to meet with shooting the victims and their family members.