In what may possibly be an act of terrorism, a heavily armed couple of Pakistani descent went on the rampage in San Bernardino, California on Wednesday, killing 14 people and injuring 17 others gathered for a holiday banquet at a health department facility.
Hours later, the fleeing couple — Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27 — died in a gun battle with the police in another part of the city, about 100 km east of los Angeles. A third person was picked up from the scene, but the police were not sure of his involvement.
The motive behind the mass shooting, said to be the 355th in the United States this year, was not immediately clear. “We have not ruled out terrorism,” San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said. An FBI official said possibilities, including workplace violence and terrorism, were being probed.
Farook, a Pakistani-American born in Illinois, was an environmental health inspector with the San Bernardino County Public Health Department, where he joined colleagues at the banquet celebration but stormed out after a while in anger following some dispute.
He returned later with his wife, with both dressed in tactical gear and carrying assault rifles and semi-automatic guns. The couple went on a shooting spree that, police said later, killed 14 people and injured at least 17 others. The suspects fled in a black SUV – till they were killed in an exchange of fire with the police hours later.
Police chief Berguan told reporters that the rampage appeared to be a planned affair, given the level of preparation. “So I don’t think they just ran home, put on these types of tactical clothes, grabbed guns and came back on a spur of the moment,” he said.
Reports citing a relative of the suspects said that Farook, accompanied by Malik, left their six-month-old daughter with his mother, telling her they were going out for a doctor’s appointment.
At a news conference organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Farook’s brother-in-law Farhan Khan said: “I have no idea why would he do that. I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself.”
Farook had been working with the San Bernardino for five years. He had married Malik two years ago. Malik, according to CAIR executive director Hussam Ayloush, was believed to be from Pakistan and had lived in Saudi Arabia before coming to the United States.
The San Bernardino attack is said to be the deadliest mass shooting since the massacre of 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. Also, unlike other mass shootings in recent times, this one was carried out by more than one assailant, with one being a female.
President Barack Obama, who has been frustrated with Congressional inaction over tightening America’s gun laws, said the California episode was yet more evidence of the need for stricter gun laws.