Syed Rizwan Farook, the 28-year-old Pakistani-American identified along with his wife a suspect in Wednesday’s shooting in San Bernardino, California, claimed to enjoy reading religious books and shooting target practice with his younger sister, his Internet dating profile shows.
Farook and 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik were named as suspects in the shooting, which began at around 11 a.m. at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, which lies 60 miles to the east of Los Angeles.
Wearing black masks and toting long guns, the couple stormed a holiday party being held for county employees and opened fire. Farook, who had worked for the county for five years, reportedly attended the party before the shooting. Witnesses said that he left and returned about 30 minutes later with Malik and began shooting.
The couple, who have a six-month old daughter, were killed by police following a high-speed chase following a multi-hour manhunt. Farook and Malik were reportedly armed and wearing assault-style clothing.
Fourteen were killed and another 17 are listed as injured.
Though the shooting was initially believed to be a case of workplace violence, authorities are now hedging toward a terrorism motive.
Farook’s father, also named Syed Farook, told news outlets that his son was a devout Muslim. On a dating profile at the website DubaiMatrimonial.com, Farook stated that he identified as a Sunni Muslim.
Syed Rizwan Farook (iMilap.com profile)
Farook, who was born in Chicago, hinted at that religious background on a dating profile on the site iMilap.com published several years ago.
In a short narrative, he described himself as hailing from a “religios [sic] but modern family of 4, 2 girls 2 boys.”
“I work for county as health, safety and envorimental [sic] inspector. Enjoy working on vintage and modern cars, read religios books, enjoy eating out sometimes travel and just hang out in back yard doing target pratice with younger sister and friends.”
Police say four guns were recovered from an SUV Farook and Malik were driving when they were killed in a shootout with police.
Farook is also listed as a 2009 graduate of California State University, San Bernardino, where he received a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Health. He has worked as an environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County for the past five years. The county’s website lists health inspections Farook has conducted.
The Daily Caller also obtained details of Farook’s criminal history. Records show he has had four minor charges since 2005. Details are not provided for two of the charges. The others — one in February 2008 and another in June 2012 — were for failure to obey a red light and failure to obey a traffic sign, respectively.