(CNN)They were a married couple who left their baby with grandma while they carried out the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since the December 2012 rampage at Sandy Hook.
Syed Rizwan Farook, a U.S. citizen, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, a permanent resident, massacred 14 people at a holiday party Wednesday at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California.
San Bernardino shooting: Who were the victims?
Farook and Malik were later killed in a shootout with police. The attackers’ specific motives remain unclear, but here is what we know about them:
They were husband and wife
Farook, 28, and Malik, 29, were married.
He got to know Malik through an online dating service, Farook family attorney Mohammad Abuershaid said. They met face to face when Farook visited Saudi Arabia, where Malik had moved from her native Pakistan around the age of 18 or 20, according to the lawyer.
She later came to the United States on a fiancée visa and became a legal permanent resident.
The couple left their 6-month-old girl with Farook’s mother Wednesday, saying they had a doctor’s appointment.
The grandmother became concerned when she saw reports of the shooting and couldn’t reach Farook.
Opinion: San Bernardino: A horror that affects us all
Farook worked for the county
Farook, an American citizen, was an environmental health specialist with the San Bernardino County health department, which was hosting the holiday party at the Inland Regional Center where the attack took place.
He had been there five years. Records list a man with his name and title who worked at the agency and made $53,000 in 2013.
He graduated from California State University, San Bernardino, with a degree in environmental health in 2010.
A graduate student ID card from California State University, Fullerton, with Farook’s name on it was spotted by CNN on Friday inside his Redlands townhouse. Jeff Cook, a spokesman for that school, said that records indicate a student by that same name had been enrolled in Cal State Fullerton’s environmental engineering graduate program.
The university issued a statement Friday saying, „Syed Rizwan Farook attended Cal State Fullerton for one semester in Fall 2014 in the online graduate program in environmental engineering. He is not currently enrolled.”
Police haven’t pinpointed a motive
Farook was at the party but left abruptly before the shooting. He seemed angry, witnesses told police. He returned. And, along with Malik, he went into the building and began firing, authorities said.
There are no indications his job was in jeopardy, police said. They’re also unaware of any criminal history.
Farhan Khan, Farook’s brother-in-law, told reporters he was at a loss, too.
„I have no idea why he would do something like this. I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself,” Khan said.
He said the family, like the rest of America, will have to wait for the police investigation for answers.
Farook and Malik didn’t appear to have left behind a note, a law enforcement official said.
He may have been radicalized
Law enforcement officials told CNN that Farook had been in touch via phone and social media with at least one person whom the FBI suspected of international terrorism. Officials wouldn’t elaborate.
It appears Farook was radicalized, which contributed to his motive, though other things – such as workplace grievances – may have also played a role, other law enforcement sources said.
The officials said these contacts were not considered high-priority terrorism subjects. And it had been at least a few months since the last known communication, they said.
Neither Farook nor Malik were on any list of potentially radicalized people, and there are no clear ties to overseas terrorist groups as of now, officials said.
Farook’s relatives knew him as conservative but didn’t think he or his wife were extreme, according to the family’s attorneys.
„He was a normal guy,” Abuershaid said.
Sources: Malik posted allegiance to ISIS
As the attack was underway, investigators believe Malik expressed allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a Facebook post, three U.S. officials familiar with the investigation told CNN.
Malik made the post on an account with a different name, one U.S. official said. The officials did not explain how they knew Malik was behind the message.
A law enforcement official said it appeared ISIS may have inspired the attack, but none of the officials said the terror group directed or ordered the attack.
„This is looking more and more like self-radicalization,” one law enforcement official said.
Farook kept a low profile
Those who knew Farook described him as quiet.
„He’s a little bit shy, a little bit withdrawn. He doesn’t mix with people easily,” said Mustafa Kuko, director of the Islamic Center of Riverside where Farook was a regular.
Doyle Miller, Farook’s landlord, said he had „no cause for concern” when he rented out a townhouse to him in Redlands.
„He had no red flags whatsoever; everything checked out,” Miller said. „He had good credit reports … everything.
„We screen our people pretty good. It’s unbelievable what’s going on.”
Farook’s family knew him as someone who „always kept to himself,” as did his wife, according to Abuershaid.
He enjoyed target practice
Farook had a profile set up on iMilap.com, which describes itself as „a site for people with disabilities and second marriage.”
The profile said he „enjoys working on vintage and modern cars, reads religious books, enjoys eating out sometimes.”
It also said Farook ” enjoys traveling and just hanging out in the backyard doing target practice with his younger sister and friends.”
He would go to firing ranges by himself, said David S. Chesley, another lawyer for Farook’s family.
Social media mourns, prays after shooting
He was devout in his faith
In the same online profile, Farook said he came from a Muslim family with „Eastern and Western” family values.
There’s no indication when the profile was set up. But his father told the New York Daily News that Farook was religious.
„He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back,” he said.
Kuko, the Islamic Center director, said Farook would come to the center for morning and night prayers.
He shares the same name as his brother and father
It’s important to note Farook’s middle name – Rizwan. His father also is named Syed Farook, as is his older brother. Like him, they have different middle names.
Farook and Malik ‘came prepared’ for the attack
The couple was „dressed in dark, kind of tactical gear,” San Bernardino police Chief Jarrod Burguan said. They carried rifles and semiautomatic handguns.
Two handguns recovered have been traced to Farook. He purchased them legally three or four years ago, an official said. Two rifles were purchased by someone else, possibly a former roommate, also legally three or four years ago. Officials said they don’t think that person had anything to do with the shooting.
„These were people that came prepared,” Burguan said. „There had to have been some degree of planning that went into this.”
They tried to cover their tracks
Two relatively new cellphones were found smashed and tossed in a garbage can near one of the crime scenes, law enforcement officials said. Officials suspect the phones were damaged to hide call histories.
A computer found at the couple’s home was missing a hard drive. Investigators have subpoenaed email service providers to retrieve communications.
They had a bomb lab in their townhouse
Inside the garage of the couple’s rented townhouse, authorities found 12 pipe bomb-type devices and hundreds of tools, many of which could be used to make improvised explosives.
Authorities also found thousands of round of ammunition.
They intended to inflict more damage
A bag believed to belong to the shooters was found inside Inland Regional’s conference room. Inside, investigators found three rudimentary explosive devices packed with black powder and rigged to a remote-controlled toy car. The remote for the car was found inside the SUV where Farook and Malik were later killed, a law enforcement official said.
The pair planned to use the remote to detonate the explosives from a distance, the official said. Either it didn’t work because of distance or they didn’t do it. Officials later rendered the explosive devices safe.
They died in a hail of bullets
After carrying out the attack at Inland Regional, Farook and Malik led police on a chase. Farook fired at officers while Malik drove, officials said. They died in the shootout, which involved 21 officers.
Complete coverage of the shooting ” (subl. mea)
Deci tipul absolvise Universitatea de Stat din California si avea un venit, in 2013, de 53.000$ (pe an)!! Observati ca avea un venit respectabil. Dupa cum afirma sora atacatorului: „era un baiat rusinos si tacut„!!!!
San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik: What we know
„(CNN)Three U.S. officials familiar with the San Bernardino, California, massacre have told CNN that the woman involved in the shooting authored – as the incident was occurring – a Facebook post declaring her loyalty to the leader of ISIS.
Tashfeen Malik’s post pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was made on an account with a different name, according to one U.S. official.
The officials did not explain how they knew Malik made the post.
A law enforcement official said it appeared the San Bernardino attack may have been inspired by ISIS, but none of the officials said that ISIS directed or ordered the attack.
„This is looking more and more like self-radicalization,” a law enforcement official said.
In addition, the law enforcement source said that investigators in the San Bernadino attacks are putting a greater focus on whether there was a workplace issue around religion.
Here’s what we know so far about Tashfeen Malik:
Marriage to Syed Rizwan Farook
Malik, 29, was married to Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, her accomplice in the shooting Wednesday that left 14 people dead and 21 injured and culminated in their deaths in a police shootout.
They lived in a rented home in Redlands, which neighbors San Bernardino.
Malik was born and raised in Pakistan and lived in Saudi Arabia before coming to the United States on a „fiancée visa.” She later became a lawful permanent resident.
The couple had a 6-month-old daughter, whom they left with a grandmother the day of the shooting.
San Bernardino shooting: Who were the victims?
Mohammad Abuershaid, an attorney for Farook’s family, said Malik moved to Riyadh when she was between 18 and 20.
Abuershaid told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that the couple met via an online dating website. They met in person when Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2013 during the Hajj pilgrimage, the attorney said.
Mustafa Kuko, director of Islamic Center of Riverside, counseled Farook as he was looking for a religious woman to marry, Kuko said.
Farook married Malik in a religious marital ceremony during a second trip to Saudi Arabia a short time later, and then returned the U.S. with his new wife, Kuko said.
It was on Farook’s second return trip from Saudi Arabia that Malik entered the United States, said Kuko, who officiated the couple’s U.S. marital ceremony at his mosque in 2014.
Joining the couple in their rented two-story townhouse with two bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms were the couple’s baby and Farook’s mother, their landlord said.
„She was very conservative. She was a stay-at-home mom. She was helping raising the children. She was helping take care of the mother at the house,” Abuershaid said.
Malik was described as a shy, quiet person who kept to herself, according to Farook’s sister and her husband, who appeared on CBS.
‘Nothing … out of the ordinary’
Like her husband, Malik wasn’t on any list of potentially radicalized people, and there was no evidence linking her to any terror groups overseas prior to news of the Facebook posting.
„There was nothing to show that she was extreme at all,” Abuershaid told CNN. „She was a practicing Muslim, she believed in the religion, and she was just doing the five prayers a day, the fasting… there was nothing to show that she was out of the ordinary. „
Abuershaid said Farook’s sisters „would talk to [Malik], and they would see her once in a while. But it wasn’t something that they would be getting together every single day or every single week. It was just, they see her at these family events, they talk to her, and that would be it.”
Abuershaid said there was nothing to show she was responsible for radicalizing her husband.
Malik was of petite stature, which led David S. Chesley, another attorney for the Farook family, to assert that she was an unlikely gunman in the San Bernardino attacks.
„She was never involved in shooting. She’s probably about 90 pounds, so it’s unlikely she could even carry a weapon or wear some type of a vest or do any of this,” Chesley said.
What their landlord said
Last May, Malik and her husband rented a townhouse in Redlands, about seven miles from the attack site, said Doyle Miller, their landlord and owner of the townhouse. The couple answered Miller’s ad on Craigslist.
Miller said his wife interviewed the couple and he did not know them well. The couple had good credit.
„They seemed to be very timid,” he told CNN. „I only saw him a couple times. He delivered the checks once in a while … there was no cause for concern.
„Once we rented the property, we don’t bother people,” Miller said. „They seemed like gentle-minded people. I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover.”” (subl. mea)
Deci in viata tipei, totul banal: era o musulmanca practicanta, isi facea rugaciunile. Pareau niste oameni gentili amandoi. Pentru ca nu vreau sa-l acuz pe Beke Istvan Attila de lipsa de gentilete, imi imaginez ca era si el un baiat cat se poate de gentil. Si la locuinta sa:
„Anchetatorii au găsit la percheziţiile din Covasna, la imobilul folosit de Beke Istvan Attila, sute de materii explozive, dispozive electronice care permiteau acţionarea de la distanţă, două dispozitive militare de vedere pe timp de noapte, dar şi un poligon de tragere, potrivit unor surse judiciare.”,
dupa cum arata articolul citat din Mediafax.
Nu stiu daca Pișto baci se bucura de avatarurile lui Farook si Malik, insa pare-se ca transformarile profunde din interiorul fiintei sale sunt similare cu ale celor doi. Nu stiu ce venit avea pe an… Dar… daca e si el absolvent nu al Universitatii de Stat din California, ci al uneia autohtone, si avea nu 53.000$ pe an ci 53.000 de roni pe an, deci daca as afla asta, nu stiu de ce dar nu m-ar prea mira cine stie ce… Dupa unii s-ar fi bucurat de acelasi nivel de trai cu cei doi atacatori din California, daca nu si mai si!! 😆
Ca atat Mahomed cat si Attila i-ar fi certat zdravan pe Farook si Malik, respectiv pe Beke, nu cred ca incape indoiala: „Ce-i aia suporteri? Ce inseamna lipsa asta de disciplina? Fiecare actioneaza cum vrea si cand vrea? Se actioneaza la ordin!”. Evident ca un general ca Attila n-ar fi suportat o asemenea indisciplina, in numele niciunei revelatii spirituale! Fara indoiala, Beke ar fi lasat capul in jos, rusinos si tacut.
Bineinteles, lucrurile astea sunt de natura sa ne revolte! As putea sa-i cer socoteala lui Obama Insusi: „Nea’ Barack, ce pazesti, bre? Ca zisesi ca asa si pe dincolo, dar ne pomenim cu teroristii langa noi, la un hamburger si un pepsi la cutie!”. As putea, desigur, s-o intreb pe Hillary Clinton ce parere are, pe Victoria Jane Nuland, Nancy Pelosi sau intreg Departamentul de Stat!!
Dar n-am s-o fac!
Ci as intreba doar un singur om ce zice de toata tarasenia asta! Fara indoiala, sunt previzibil: stiti deja la cine ma refer! 🙂 Nu stiti? L-as intreba pe:
Tom Lantos!!!
😆
😉
Foarte tare si acest articol din Gandul:
Un român, prieten cu unul dintre teroriştii din Paris, povesteşte cum s-a transformat acesta: „Sunteţi nişte necredincioşi! Ţigani de rahat, români de rahat!”
Se arata ca:
„Un bărbat de origine română stabilit în Franţa, numit Aron, a declarat pentru televiziunea belgiană RTL că îl cunoştea pe Brahim Abdeslam, unul dintre atacatorii de la Paris şi că, în ultimul timp, a remarcat un comportament ciudat al acestuia, asistând, practic, la radicalizarea lui. Cei doi se cunoşteau de o jumătate de an, iar timp de trei luni au fost colegi de muncă, declară românul.
Aron a povestit jurnaliştilor belgieni cum, cu doar câteva zile înainte de atentate, Brahim Abdeslam ar fi început să-l insulte fără motiv, comportamentul său schimbându-se radical. „Dintr-odată mi-a spus: sunteţi nişte necredincioşi! Ţigani de rahat, români de rahat!”, afirmă bărbatul.
„Apoi a venit la mine, m-a strâns în braţe, m-a pupat şi mi-a spus că-i pare rău că mi-a vorbit aşa. Apoi m-a îndemnat să plec acasă. Eu i-am răspuns: Brahim, ăsta nu eşti tu!”, povesteşte Aron. Acesta i-ar fi spus că nu-l mai recunoaşte, că nu este aceeaşi persoană pe care el o ştia, iar teroristul şi-ar fi cerut scuze, replicând că nu ştie ce s-a întâmplat cu el şi că nu este o persoană rea.
Mai mult, sub pretextul unui voiaj urgent în Maroc, aflaţi pe terasa unei cafenele, Brahim Abdeslam i-ar fi dat românului o fiolă de parfum pe care să o păstreze drept amintire din partea sa. „Mi-a spus să iau parfumul şi să-l păstrez toată viaţa, ca o amintire din partea lui. În acel moment n-am înţeles la ce se referă”, adaugă românul.
Şi astăzi, Aron îşi aminteşte această scenă premonitorie. Bărbatul mai are în minte şi imaginea unei zile în care, aflaţi la muncă pentru a renova o cafenea, Brahim s-a întâlnit cu alte trei persoane de origine arabă. O parte a conversaţiei între cei patru s-a purtat şi în limba franceză, iar Aron susţine că a înţeles cum Abdeslam era presat să „continue ceea ce a început”.
Această apropiere de Brahim Abdeslam l-a transformat în suspect, într-o oarecare măsură, şi pe Aron, astfel că acesta a fost printre primele persoane percheziţionate după identificarea teroriştilor. Românul spune că nu îşi explică nici astăzi cum a fost posibilă radicalizarea atât de rapidă a colegului său de muncă.”
Izbucnirea lui Brahim Abdeslam nu prea ma mira… Pentru ca se vede in aceasta influenta UMP-ului (care face parte din PPE) si a lui Nicolas Sarkozy, care sistematic au dus o propaganda antiromaneasca si i-au prezentat pe romani drept tigani si cersetori, ca si cum toti romanii ar avea doar calitati negative. De asemenea e vorba si de influenta determinata de unele tari neprietene, precum Olanda, care sistematic si fara motiv se opun unui drept al Romaniei, intrarea tarii noastre in Spatiul Schengen, ca si cum am fi o tara de mana a doua, cu cetateni de mana a doua in Uniunea Europeana!!
Recomand citirea integrala si in original a tuturor articolelor.
Motanul Incaltat 