Buyer of guns used in Calif. massacre faces terrorism count

Associated Press

RIVERSIDE, Calif.

The man who bought the assault rifles used by his friend in the San Bernardino massacre was charged Thursday with terrorism-related counts for plotting an earlier attack that was aborted.

Enrique Marquez, 24, was charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The charges allege he plotted with gunman Syed Rizwan Farook to launch attacks in 2011 and 2012 at a community college and a congested freeway at rush hour, but they never carried out their plans.

Marquez also was charged with illegally purchasing two assault rifles that Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, used to kill 14 people at a holiday meeting of Farook’s health department co-workers Dec. 2.

The shooters died hours later using those same firearms in a gunbattle with police.

Marquez was working at a Riverside bar at the time of the shooting and is not alleged to have had a role in the attack, but prosecutors said he was linked to the killings by the guns and bomb-making materials he bought that the couple planned to detonate.