San Bernardino suspects' huge cache of bullets and bombs enough for 'another attack,' officials say
Authorities are searching for a motive in a mass shooting Wednesday at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino that left 14 people dead and 21 injured. Two suspects were killed in a police shootout after the attack. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
James Queally, Sarah Parvini, Richard A. Serrano and Alan ZaremboContact Reporters
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik -- the heavily armed couple who authorities say unleashed volleys of gunfire on a holiday party in San Bernardino -- had amassed an armory of weapons and explosives in their Redlands home, including a dozen pipe bombs and thousands of rounds of ammunition, officials said Thursday.
The arsenal suggested a level of planning that added to investigators’ concern that Wednesday's shootings, which left 14 dead and 21 injured, were far more than a spontaneous response to a workplace dispute.
“Certainly they were equipped and they could have continued to do another attack … we intercepted them,” San Bernardino police Chief Jarrod Burguan said at a news conference Thursday.
Farook and Malik fired at least 65 bullets when they stormed the office party in a conference room at the Inland Regional Center, where Farook had earlier been involved in some kind of dispute.
Hours later, Farook and Malik exchanged hundreds of rounds with police in a firefight on San Bernardino’s streets, launching bullets into homes and terrifying residents who had already been rocked by the mass shooting earlier in the day.
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When they searched Farook and Malik’s home, police recovered a dozen pipe bombs, 2,000 9-millimeter handgun rounds, 2,500 .223-caliber assault rifle rounds and “hundreds of tools” that could have been used to make additional explosive devices, Burguan said.
Farook and Malik used two assault rifles and two semi-automatic handguns in the attack on the party, all of which were purchased legally, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
As authorities continued to probe the backgrounds of the husband and wife responsible for America’s deadliest mass shooting since 2012, investigators and legislators from California to Washington, D.C., tried to understand what motivated the shooters.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday morning, President Obama said the FBI was now leading the probe into the attack at the Inland Regional Center. Investigators have yet to rule out terrorism as a motive, but police have also said that Farook was involved in a dispute at the party for employees of the San Bernardino County Health Department shortly before gunfire broke out.
"We do know that the two individuals who were killed were equipped with weapons and appeared to have access to additional weaponry at their homes," Obama said. "But we don’t know why they did it. We don’t know at this point the extent of their plans. We do not know their motivations.”
During a news conference Thursday, Burguan said the suspects had 1,400 assault rifle rounds and 200 handgun rounds in their car as they fled from police. The couple fired 76 rounds at officers during the shootout, and officers shot 380 rounds in return. Burguan said he believed the suspects shot first.
Despite uncertainty about the motive for the attack, Burguan said the cache of weapons and ammunition found at the couple’s home obviously suggests it was preplanned.
Farook was born in Illinois, and had worked at the health department as an inspector for five years. He recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a woman he met online. Farook stayed in the country for nine days in the summer of 2014, according to the U.S. Embassy there.
The embassy had no records indicating that Malik was a Saudi citizen. She was born in Pakistan, according to a federal law enforcement source who requested anonymity. She was in the U.S. legally on a visa, according to Burguan.
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Police said that they believe Farook and Malik were the only people directly involved in the shooting, but said the investigation was continuing.
Federal investigators were attempting to interview three men who "were in phone contact" with Farook and his wife in the days leading up to the shooting rampage, a government official said.
"They were associates and in contact with the shooters,” said the official, who requested anonymity because the investigation was still ongoing.
It was not clear if the three men were involved in the shooting.
On Thursday morning, FBI agents and SWAT officers also raided a condominium in Corona, where they led away one man in handcuffs, neighbors said.
“FBI agents with bullhorns showed up at 5 a.m.,” said Lorraine Otto, who lives next door to the home on Forum Way. "They kept saying, ‘This is the FBI. Open the door. If you don’t open the door, we’ll break it open.'”
A federal law enforcement source told the Los Angeles Times that while investigators have yet to establish a clear motive in the shooting, they are leaning toward a possible “combination of terrorism and workplace” conflict.
“We’re very involved in terms of trying to see if the motive was something inspired by a terrorist organization or directed by a terrorist organization, or whether he was self-radicalized,” the source, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said.
Investigators also believe the couple had a familiarity with weapons and military-style tactics.
“We want to know how they acquired that,” the source said.
Farook and Malik were not known to federal investigators prior to the attack, the source said.
Shortly before the shooting, the couple left their young daughter with the child's grandmother in Redlands, saying they had a doctor's appointment, according to Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles.
They headed to the regional center soon after.
The grandmother grew panicked when news of the shooting broke and began frantically calling Farook and Malik, but they did not answer, Ayloush said.
As expected, the shooting is already a new chapter in the ever-divisive national gun debate. The president said Thursday that it was still "too easy" for people who want to kill large numbers of people to get access to high-powered weapons in the U.S.
"We’re going to have to, I think, search ourselves as a society to make sure that we can take basic steps that would make it harder, not impossible, but harder for individuals to get access to weapons," he said.
Farook and Malik used a pair of .223-caliber assault rifles and two semi-automatic handguns in the shooting, Burguan said.
A federal law enforcement source told The Times that Farook purchased the pistols at Annie's Get Your Gun, a firearms retailer in nearby Corona that advertises itself as a "family-friendly gun store."
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two rifles used in the attack were purchased by a separate individual at a second store.
The source, who did not know the name of the second store, said agents had visited both gun retailers to review paperwork. They believe the rifles were purchased by Farook’s former roommate and then given to him.
A woman reached by phone at Annie's Get Your Gun who identified herself as Anne, the store owner, denied that the weapons involved in the shooting were sold at her store.
"That's not true," she said, before hanging up.
The couple was dressed in "assault-style" clothing when police closed in on their Redlands home Wednesday afternoon, roughly four hours after the shooting. The couple fled, sparking a vehicle pursuit that ended back in San Bernardino. Both were killed in a shootout that involved roughly 20 police officers.
One officer was shot and suffered injuries that weren't considered life-threatening, according to Burguan.
Burguan said San Bernardino County coroner’s officials will begin to release the names of those killed in Wednesday’s attack “fairly soon.”
Relatives of the victims were still trying to process how an event meant to celebrate a holiday turned into a bloodletting.
Terrorism 'possible' in San Bernardino shooting, Obama says, but 'we don't know'
Julie Swann-Paez, an inspector with the health department, was supposed to receive an employee of the year award at the party, according to relatives. But she was shot twice when Farook and Malik stormed the conference room, suffering a shattered pelvis and other serious injuries.
"Love you guys," she said in a group text message to her family. "Was shot."
Her son, 26-year-old Nick Paez, didn't see the message until at least an hour after the shooting, and raced to the hospital unsure of his mother's condition.
"I thought she was dead," he said as he sat in his parents' home with his younger brother and sister on Thursday. Photos of the family filled the small room.
Swann-Paez's loved ones weren't allowed to visit her until 10 p.m. Nick Paez said he told his mother that her coworker, Farook, may have been the shooter.
"That doesn't make sense," Swann-Paez replied, according to her son. "They were congratulating him for having a baby."
For others, the torturous wait for information ended in sorrow. Ryan Reyes said he dropped off his boyfriend, Daniel Kaufman, at 7 a.m. at the regional center, where he managed the coffee shop.
They traded cheerful texts throughout the morning. But at 10:37 a.m., Reyes received an ominous message from his sister.
"Hey Ry does Daniel work at the Regional Center in Sb?" the message read. "Check the news."
Reyes, 32, called his boyfriend repeatedly but kept getting sent to voicemail.
"Call me ASAP!" he texted. There was no reply.
The next 22 hours were agonizing, as Reyes and his family received conflicting reports about Kaufman's fate.
Reyes' cell phone rang again Thursday morning. It was another call from a relative, this time confirming the news he had been dreading.
Kaufman was dead.
Staff writers Richard Winton, Rong-Gong Lin II, Veronica Rocha and Louis Sahagun contributed to this report.
