Killing 14 people and wounding 17 others, California

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At least 14 people were killed and 17 others wounded when gunmen opened fire at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday, triggering a massive manhunt that ended with two suspects dead after a high-speed police chase.
A man and woman armed with assault-style rifles opened fire on a holiday party of his

co-workers in Southern California, killing 14 people and wounding 17 others, and then were slain hours later in a shootout with police, authorities said.

The two suspects were identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, who San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said were in a relationship, possibly married or engaged. He said they were believed to be the only shooters involved in an attack that required some degree of planning.

While the motive remained unclear, Burguan said, "We have not ruled out terrorism."

Farook was U.S. born, while Malik's nationality was still undetermined. They were parents of a six-month-old baby girl.

Farook's family and co-workers struggled to make sense of the shooting, the deadliest in the United States in three years. His brother-in-law went before television cameras and said he had "absolutely no idea" why Farook would stage a massacre.


San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan identified one dead suspect as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, the other as Tashfeen Malik, 27, his wife or fiancee. Burguan said Farook was born in the United States; the chief said he did not know Malik's background.

The attackers invaded the Inland Regional Center about 60 miles east of Los Angeles around 11 a.m., opening fire in a conference area where county health officials were having an employee banquet, said Marybeth Feild, president and CEO of the nonprofit center.

"They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission," Burguan said.

Farook attended the event before leaving — and returning to kill.

Co-worker Patrick Baccari said he was sitting at the same table as Farook, who suddenly disappeared, leaving his coat on his chair. Baccari said when the shooting started, he sought refuge in a bathroom and suffered minor wounds from shrapnel slicing through the wall.

According to the police chief, Farook was a county public health employee who attended the party, held in a conference building on the campus of the Inland Regional Center - a social services agency - and at some point stormed out. He returned with Malik to open fire on the celebration. The couple were dressed in assault-style clothing and also placed several bombs at the scene, which police detonated.

The shooting rampage marked the deadliest U.S. gun violence since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, in which 27 people, including the gunman, were killed.

Wednesday's carnage amplified concerns about gun violence and security after deadly assaults at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs last week and the attacks in Paris three weeks ago by Islamic State militants that killed 130 people.

So far in 2015, the United States has seen more than 350 shootings in which four or more people were wounded or killed, according to the crowd-sourced website shootingtracker.com, which keeps a running tally of U.S. gun violence.

The attack in San Bernardino, a largely working-class city 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles, appeared to differ from other recent U.S. killing sprees in several ways, including the involvement of two people rather than a lone perpetrator.

third person seen fleeing from the area of the shootout with the suspects was detained, but Burguan said he was not sure if that person was involved in the attack.

David Bowdich, an assistant regional FBI director, said earlier in the day that authorities had not yet determined whether the shooting was an act of terrorism.

"It is a possibility, but we don't know that," he told reporters. "It's possible it goes down that road. It's possible it does not."

At a news conference called by the Los Angeles area chapter of the Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the brother-in-law of Farook, Farhan Khan, said he was bewildered by the news.
Police officers and their vehicles line the reet in Redlands, California outside the house of one  …

"Why would he do that? Why would he do something like this? I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself," Khan said at the news conference in Anaheim, California, south of Los Angeles.