California killer 'radicalized' before shooting -- report

Syed Rizwan Farook was also in contact with international terrorism suspects under FBI watch, officials tell CNN

One of the perpetrators of a mass shooting that killed 14 people in California on Wednesday had been in contact with several FBI-tracked international terrorists before committing the attack, officials said Thursday.

San Bernardino law enforcement officials further told CNN that Syed Rizwan Farook was apparently “radicalized,” although that may not have been his sole motive in deciding to carry out the shooting.

Farook, a 28-year-old county restaurant inspector, and his wife or fiancee, Tashfeen Malik, 27, slaughtered 14 people and seriously wounded more than a dozen others in a precision attack at a social service center for the disabled in San Bernardino before they were gunned down in an SUV a few miles away in a furious shootout with police.

At the White House Thursday, President Barack Obama said after meeting with his national security team that it was “possible this was terrorist-related” but that authorities were unsure. He raised the possibility that it was a workplace dispute or that mixed motives were at play. The FBI has taken over the investigation from local authorities.

Investigators were trying to learn why the couple left behind their baby daughter and went on the rampage — the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut three years ago that left 26 children and adults dead.

A SWAT vehicle carries police officers near the scene of a shooting in San Bernardino, California, December 2, 2015. (Photo by Micah Escamilla/Los Angeles News Group via AP)

Among the possible motives, according to the FBI: workplace violence or terrorism. But the bureau would not elaborate.

Farook was born in the US to a Pakistani family and had been a San Bernardino County employee for five years, according to authorities. San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said he had no information on Malik’s background. Relatives said Farook had traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet his wife.

Police and federal agents for a second day searched a home in neighboring Redlands, about seven miles from the massacre at the Inland Regional Center. A black car parked outside was also searched.

The home is where officers initially saw a vehicle matching the description of the attackers’ SUV in the hours before the final gun battle. A bomb squad swept the home with robots Wednesday.

Police didn’t immediately say if the couple had lived at the home. Public records show it is a possible residence of a Farook family member.

Two women embrace at a community center where family members are gathering to pick up survivors after a shooting rampage that killed multiple people and wounded others at a social services center in San Bernardino, California, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015. (AP/Jae C. Hong)

Residents told KABC-TV Redlands is a sleepy town and expressed shock that the killers might be their neighbors.

The attackers invaded the center about 60 miles east of Los Angeles around 11 a.m., opening fire in a conference area where county health officials were having an employee banquet.

“They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission,” Burguan said.

Farook attended the banquet before leaving — and then returned to kill.

Co-worker Patrick Baccari said he was sitting at the same table as Farook, who suddenly disappeared. Baccari said that when the shooting started, he sought refuge in a bathroom and suffered minor wounds from shrapnel slicing through the wall.

The shooting lasted about five minutes, he said, and when he looked in the mirror he realized he was bleeding.

“If I hadn’t been in the bathroom, I’d probably be laying dead on the floor,” he said.

Baccari described Farook as reserved and said he showed no signs of unusual behavior. Earlier this year he traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a wife, later growing a beard, Baccari said.

Law enforcement officers search for a possible suspect following a shootout with suspects of a mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center by multiple gunmen on December 2, 2015 in San Bernardino, California. (David McNew/Getty Images/AFP)

The couple dropped off their 6-month-old daughter with relatives Wednesday morning, saying they had a doctor’s appointment, Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said after talking with family.

Farhan Khan, who is married to Farook’s sister, told reporters that he last spoke to his brother-in-law about a week ago. Khan condemned the violence and said he had “absolutely no idea” why Farook would do such a thing.

Seventeen people were wounded, according to authorities. Ten were hospitalized in critical condition, and three in serious condition, Fire Chief Tom Hannemann said.

About four hours after the morning carnage, police hunting for the killers riddled a black SUV with gunfire in a shootout two miles from the social services center in this Southern California city of 214,000 people.

Farook and Malik were found with assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns, and were wearing “assault-style clothing” with ammunition attached, authorities said.

Three explosive devices — all connected to one another — were found at the social services center, police said.

Federal authorities said the two assault rifles and two handguns used in the violence had been bought legally, but they did not say how and when they got into the attackers’ hands.