FBI: San Bernardino shooters both 'radicalized ... for some time'

The agent in charge of the investigation also said the Muslim couple had taken target practice at gun ranges within the Los Angeles metropolitan area, with one session held within days of the rampage.

|
Jae C. Hong/AP
David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles office, center, talks to the media as he is joined by San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon, left, and San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Berguan, during a news conference, Monday, Dec. 7, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif.

The husband and wife who carried out the San Bernardino massacre had been radicalized and had taken part in target practice, one time within days of the attack that killed 14 people, the FBI said Monday.

In another chilling twist, authorities disclosed that a year before the rampage, Syed Farook's co-workers at the county health department underwent "active-shooter" training in the very conference room where he and his wife opened fire on his colleagues.

It was not immediately clear whether Farook attended the autumn 2014 training session on how to react to a workplace gunman, county spokeswoman Felisa Cardona said. It was held for members of the department's environmental health division, where Farook was a restaurant inspector.

On Monday, one employee in the room when Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire on a work holiday party Wednesday said colleagues tried to do just as they had been trained — find protection and stay quiet.

"Unfortunately the room just didn't provide a whole lot of protection," said Corwin Porter, assistant county health director.

Meanwhile, thousands of county employees went back to work for the first time since the rampage five days earlier.

Farook, a 28-year-old born in the US to a Pakistani family, and Malik, a 29-year-old immigrant from Pakistan, were killed in a gun battle with police hours after the bloodbath.

"We believe both were radicalized and had been for some time," said David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles office. But he said investigators are still trying to establish precisely when, where and by whom they were influenced.

He also said the Muslim couple had taken target practice at ranges within the Los Angeles metropolitan area, with one session held within days of the rampage.

In addition, authorities found 19 pipes in the couple's home in Redlands, California, that could be turned into bombs, Bowdich said.

At least six people remained hospitalized Monday, two in critical condition.

Cardona, the county spokeswoman, said the active-shooter training was held in November or December of 2014 at the conference room that the health department rented for this year's party.

The reopening of much of the government's offices signaled an effort to return to normal for a community in shock and mourning.

"To honor them, to express our gratitude for their unimaginable sacrifice, we have to fight to maintain that ordinary," County Supervisor Janice Rutherford said of the victims. "We can't be afraid of our lives, of our community, of our neighbors, of our co-workers."

Following the attack, the county shut down all but essential services, with many of its 20,000 employees staying home. Authorities said that they tightened security at county buildings and that counseling centers and a hotline were open for employees in distress.

While most employees went back to work Monday, those at the environmental health services division, where many of the victims worked, will be off until next week.

President Obama said in a prime-time address Sunday night that the attack was an "act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people."

While there was no evidence the killers were directed by a terror network overseas or were part of a broader plot, "the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization," Obama said.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to FBI: San Bernardino shooters both 'radicalized ... for some time'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/1207/FBI-San-Bernardino-shooters-both-radicalized-for-some-time
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe