Crime & Safety
Shooting Spree in San Bernardino Leaves At Least 14 Dead, 17 Injured
Two suspects killed, another detained; man and woman identified; motive as yet uncertain.
By Renee Schiavone, Autumn Johnson, Marc Torrence:
SAN BERNARDINO, CA -- Up to three masked shooters, heavily armed and cloaked in tactical armor, opened fire Wednesday at a center for the disabled here, killing 14 people and wounding 17 more, authorities said. Police have since killed two suspected gunmen in a roadside shootout and captured another possible suspect.
One of the suspects has been identified by police as 28-year-old Syed Rizwan Farook of nearby Redlands. The other, Tashfeen Malik, 27, is believed to be his wife.
The shooting began about 11 a.m. local time, authorities said, inside the Inland Regional Center, which regulates group homes serving the developmentally disabled in this mountainous region about an hour east of Los Angeles. Patch has confirmed from law enforcement services that the shooting took place in a conference area being rented by an outside group for a planned holiday event.
“This was a meeting, a Christmas party event that was taking place with San Bernardino County employees at the Inland Regional Center,” San Bernardino Police Department Chief Jarrod Burguan said Wednesday night, while describing the scene.
“Mr. Farook is a county employee,” he said. “He works with the title of Environmental Specialist in the public health department and has been employed there for five years. He was at the party, he did leave the party early under some circumstances that were described as angry or something of that nature. “
According to law enforcement officials, Farook then returned to the party. He and Malik “came prepared,” covered in protective gear and clad with assault rifles. After creating so much carnage, they escaped in a dark SUV.
As officers searched the area in a town of about 210,000 people, police came across a dark-colored SUV not more than a couple miles from the morning shooting, at around 3 p.m. local time.
From news helicopters, police cars could be seen swarming the suspect vehicle. Every window of the SUV, except for the windshield, had been peppered with bullets. Authorities report that 21 officers fired upon the vehicle in a shootout with Farook and Malik.
The San Bernardino County Police Department says one officer was struck by a bullet in the gunfight with the suspects and suffered injuries not considered to be life-threatening.
While one gunman lay dead in the street, police surrounded the SUV with weapons drawn behind military-style vehicles to check on the fate of a second gunman, believed to be in the backseat.
The two suspected shooters were both killed in the confrontation. A third person was seen fleeing from the scene, but authorities say they have since detained that person. Their fate remained unknown late Wednesday night.
Following the officer involved shooting, the police investigation led authorities to a home connected to Farook in Redlands, where the FBI and other agencies were stationed Wednesday evening, ready to collect evidence that’s believed to be related to the day’s events.
“Previous active shooter incidents have shown us that there are times when there are devices that are left behind,” the assistant FBI director for Los Angeles, David Bowdich, said. ”We are certainly going to proceed very cautiously.”
Residents at nearby homes had been asked to shelter in place for nearly two hours.
As for a motive for the shooting? Authorities are deep into their investigation, which they stress is fluid at this time, and did not have an answer to that burning question.
“I know that one of the big questions that will come up repeatedly is ‘Is this terrorism?” Bowdich, said. “I am still not willing to say that we know that for sure. We are definitely making some movements that it is a possibility. We are making some adjustments to our investigation. It is a possibility, but we don’t know that yet, and we’re not willing to go down that road yet.”
The center where the violence began is no stranger to controversy; in years past, it has angered residents who object to group homes moving into the community, and that anger intensified dramatically when a program was established to serve paroled sex offenders with disabilities.
Aerial footage from the scene showed workers and presumably clients being escorted from an office building in the area, their hands raised in the air as part of a law-enforcement protocol that has followed mass shootings that seem to be popping up around the country with alarming frequency.
The wounded were treated in a triage center nearby. The dead lay on the ground, some in surrounding streets, covered in blankets.
A suspicious device found in the building prompted police to call in the bomb squad shortly after the shooting began.
Terry Petit told the Associated Press that his daughter works at the building and that he got a text from her sayingshe was hiding in the building after hearing gunshots.
Petit “choked back tears as he read the texts for reporters outside the center,” the AP reported. He told reporters that his daughter wrote: “People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office.”
Agents from the Los Angeles field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the scene, according to the federal agency.
News reports out of Washington, D.C., indicated that President Barack Obama has been briefed on the shooting. Gov. Jerry Brown was also briefed and “is closely monitoring this disturbing and ongoing situation unfolding in San Bernardino,” according to the governor’s Twitter page.
An NBC photographer named Alex described hearing gunshots.
“I heard several gunshots. One after another, after another,” he told NBCLA.com. “I started running towards the building. At that point, I saw a pickup truck coming towards me. And they were unloading people out of the back of the pickup truck that had been shot. They had been shot in the chest. A couple people in the back, one person in the leg, and they were just looking for help.”
“One woman told me she just heard multiple shots. She ran. She got shot in the back ... A lot of people suffered gunshot wounds to the back.”
An anonymous tip line has been set up for anyone with information about the shooter at 1-800-78Crime.
Map via Google Maps, photos courtesy Renee Schiavone/ Patch
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
