SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The couple who carried out the San Bernardino massacre had been radicalized and had taken target practice at area gun ranges, in one case within days of the attack that killed 14 people, the FBI said Monday.
In a 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 them Wednesday.
It was not clear whether Farook attended the autumn 2014 training session on how to react to a workplace gunman, said county spokeswoman Felisa Cardona. 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 holiday luncheon 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.
Farook, a 28-year-old born in the U.S. to a Pakistani family, and Malik, a 29-year-old immigrant from Pakistan, were killed in a gunbattle 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.
He said investigators are 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 area.
In addition, authorities found 19 pipes in the couple’s home in Redlands, Calif., that could be turned into bombs, Bowdich said.
Newly released emergency radio transmissions show that police identified Farook as a suspect almost immediately. Witnesses said he had left the luncheon about 20 minutes before the shooting began.
It was unclear how he was identified so quickly, given that witnesses said the attackers wore black ski masks.
Bowdich would not address that question Monday.
Twenty-one people were hurt, in addition to the 14 dead. At least six people remained hospitalized Monday, two in critical condition.
President Barack Obama said in a prime-time address Sunday night that the attack was an “act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people.”
He said that the two killers had “gone down the dark path of radicalization” but that there was no evidence they were part of a larger conspiracy or were directed by an overseas terror organization.
Meanwhile, thousands of county employees went back to work for the first time since the rampage five days earlier. 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.”
