The FBI has concluded the San Bernardino shooters were radicalized well before they opened fire at an office holiday party last week, and said Monday the couple had been practicing their aim in the days leading up to the terror attack.
“We believe that both subjects were radicalized and for quite some time,” FBI spokesman David Bowdich said Monday, referring to the husband and wife duo, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. Authorities “have evidence” they practiced their aim at gun ranges in the Los Angeles area within days of the attack, Bowdich added.
After Farook reportedly got in an argument with a co-worker regarding Islam at the party, he left and returned 20 minutes later with Malik, carrying rifles and semi-automatic handguns. The Islamic extremists killed 14 people at the Inland Regional Center, a state-run facility for individuals with developmental disabilities where Farook worked, before police tracked them down and killed them.
Malik pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on Facebook as the attack was happening.
The White House was quick to emphasize there is no evidence a terror group directed the attack, although Obama characterized the attack as “terror” in an address from the Oval office Sunday. (RELATED: Media Hypocrisy On FULL Display In San Bernardino Aftermath)
Bowdich also said authorities found 19 types of pipes that could be constructed into bombs in the husband and wife’s home in total, after initially identifying only 12. “The investigation is massive in scale,” he said. “We have conducted at least 400 interviews.”
Farook’s mother, Rafia, is an active member of a Muslim organization that promotes the establishment of a caliphate and has ties to a radical Pakistani political group. An MSNBC reporter found a certificate of appreciation to Rafia from the group’s sister wing, while outlets scoured the Farook apartment in California. (RELATED: NY Daily News: San Bernardino Victim Deserved It For Being Conservative)
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