Thursday, December 17, 2015
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former security guard who bought the assault rifles used by his friend in the San Bernardino massacre was expected to be charged sometime today, according to two law enforcement officials.
The federal charges against Enrique Marquez, 24, were not immediately clear. The officials were not authorized to discuss the charges by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Marquez legally purchased the high-powered weapons used by Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, to kill 14 people at a holiday gathering of Farook's health department co-workers on Dec. 2. The couple also injured several others before dying hours later in a shootout with police.
Authorities previously said Marquez legally bought the rifles at least three years ago, but they did not say how Farook and his wife got them.
The FBI says that it is investigating the rampage as an act of terrorism and that the Muslim couple had discussed jihad and martyrdom as early as 2013. Farook's wife declared her allegiance to the Islamic State group in a Facebook posting shortly before the attack, the FBI said.