San Bernardino shooting investigated as potential terrorism, “no indication”

According to CNN, Malik pledged allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, officials told the news network.

The attorney for the family of Syed Rizwan Farook has been doing TV interviews saying they had no knowledge of Farook having been radicalized and also no idea why Farook and wife, Malik stormed a holiday luncheon and opened fire on his co-workers.

The agency’s director has however said that there is yet no indication that the couple who killed 14 people at San Bernardino were part of a larger plot or members of a terror cell.

Farook, 28, a United States citizen of Pakistan origin, and Malik, 27, who was from Pakistan but whose family had moved to Saudi Arabia, carried out the attack at the Inland Regional Center.

Farook is believed to have worked as an environmental health specialist for five years and was part of San Bernardino County’s public health department which was holding a Christmas party he attacked.

“At this point, we believe they were more self-radicalised and inspired by a group than actually told to do the shooting”, a law enforcement official told the New York Times.

US intelligence officials said that Farook had been in contact with known Islamic extremists on social media, media outlets reported Thursday.

Law-enforcement officials cautioned against concluding that the couple were directed by Islamic State, the group behind last month’s attacks in Paris. He said the suspects did not appear on the FBI’s “radar screen” before the shooting.

“That evidence is incredibly important”, said Bowdich, head of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

The couple’s orphaned six-month-old daughter is in the care of child protective services, and the family will try to obtain custody her next week.

“The investigation so far has delivered indications of radicalisation by the killers and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organisations”, Mr Comey said.

Police were notified and arrangements were made to have a bomb squad unit inspect the parcel, Burguan said, later adding in a follow-up post, “item was safe, posed no threat”.

Farook had no criminal record and was not under scrutiny by local or federal law enforcement before the attack, authorities said.

Relatives of Farook and Malik were at a loss to explain how the couple, who had a baby girl and seemed to be living the “American dream”, could have committed mass murder.

The killers were in possession of more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition during the confrontation with police that resulted in their deaths, and authorities found another 4,500 rounds – including 2,500 for assault rifles – in their home, along with explosives. The couple was later killed in a shootout with police.