FBI: San Bernardino shooting was ‘act of terrorism’
Officials confirm Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband killed 14 people, praised IS leader in Facebook post during the attack
The FBI is investigating the deadly mass shooting in California that killed 14 people as an “act of terrorism,” David Bowdich, assistant director of the bureau’s Los Angeles office, told a news conference Friday.
Tashfeen Malik, 27, and her husband Syed Farook, a 28-year-old county restaurant inspector, carried out the precision attack during a holiday party Wednesday at the social services center in San Bernardino, before they were gunned down in an SUV a few miles away in a shootout with police.
Bowdich said the two shooters had attempted to destroy evidence, including crushing two cell phones and discarding them in a trash can. The authorities are continuing to investigate the case to understand the shooters’ motivations and whether they were planning further attacks, he said.
A Facebook executive confirmed Friday that Malik had praised Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a post on the social media site just minutes into the attack. Investigators had earlier revealed Malik pledged allegiance to IS and al-Baghdadi in the post.
The executive said that Malik had posted the material under an alias account at 11 a.m. Wednesday, about the time the first emergency calls came in about the shooting.
The company discovered the Facebook account Thursday. It removed the profile from public view and reported its contents to law enforcement.
Meanwhile, the pro-IS news agency Aamaq claimed Friday that followers of the jihadist organization carried out the shooting.
FBI agents had been combing through cellphones and a computer hard drive left behind by the couple to try to establish a motive for the killings.
CNN, quoting US officials, said Friday that Farook had been in contact with known terror suspects overseas and had become radicalized after marrying Malik in Saudi Arabia last year, although an imam at a local mosque he attended said Farook showed no signs of that.
According to the New York Times, the FBI also has evidence Farook had communicated with extremists domestically and abroad a few years ago.
One of the victims of the shooting, Nicholas Thalasinos, was identified on Thursday as a Messianic Jew who had a heated discussion with Farook about Islam weeks before the attack.
The couple had more than 1,600 bullets with them when they were killed by authorities, and had more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition at their home, as well as 12 pipe bombs and tools that could be used to make explosive devices.
