Killers had been radicalized for ‘quite some time,’ FBI says

Associated Press

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.

The San Bernardino killers had been radicalized “for quite some time” and had taken target practice at area gun ranges, in one instance just days before the attack that left 14 people dead, the FBI said Monday.

In a chilling twist, authorities also disclosed that a year before the rampage, Syed Farook’s co-workers at the county health department underwent “active shooter” training in the same conference room where he and his wife opened fire on them last week.

It was not immediately clear whether Farook attended the late-2014 session on what to do when a gunman invades the workplace, San Bernardino County spokeswoman Felisa Cardona said.

Two employees who survived the attack said colleagues reacted Wednesday by trying to do as they had been trained – dropping under the tables and staying quiet so as not to attract attention.

“Unfortunately, the room just didn’t provide a whole lot of protection,” said Corwin Porter, assistant county health director.

Farook, a 28-year-old restaurant inspector born in the U.S. to a Pakistani family, and Tashfeen Malik, a 29-year-old immigrant from Pakistan, went on the rampage at a holiday luncheon about the same time Malik pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group on Facebook, authorities said. The Muslim couple were killed hours later in a gunbattle with police.

“We have learned and believe that both subjects were radicalized and have been for quite some time,” said David Bowdich, chief of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

He also said the couple had taken target practice at ranges in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, with one session held within days of the rampage.

John Galletta, an instructor at Riverside Magnum Range, said in a statement that Farook had been there Nov. 29 and 30, two days before the attack, and “nothing was out of the ordinary regarding his behavior.”

Galletta told reporters that he never spoke to Farook and that no one had seen Farook’s wife around there.

Asked whether in hindsight he or others at the range should have been suspicious of Farook, Galletta said, “How are you able to determine what somebody’s intents are?”

Authorities also discovered 19 pipes in the couple’s home in Redlands, Calif., that could be turned into bombs, Bowdich said. The FBI previously said it had found 12 pipe bombs.

Newly released emergency radio transmissions from the fast-moving tragedy show that police identified Farook as a suspect almost immediately, even though witnesses reported that the attackers wore black ski masks.

An unidentified police officer put out Farook’s name because Farook had left the luncheon “out of the blue” 20 minutes before the shooting, “seemed nervous,” and matched the description of one of the attackers, according to audio recordings posted by The Press-Enterprise newspaper of Riverside.

In addition to the 14 killed, 21 people were hurt. At least six remained hospitalized, two in critical condition.