Day After California Massacre, San Bernardino Residents Trapped in Homes

Residents in a shell-shocked San Bernardino neighborhood continue to wait, trapped in their homes a full day after being ordered to shelter in place when a gun battle between mass shooting suspects and officers unfolded nearby.

“Since yesterday we have not been able to go in or out,” Jesus Gonzalez told Patch as he stood outside the taped off area Thursday. He lives just about four houses from where the deadly shootout took place Wednesday around 3 p.m. local time.

“We were told because of the crime scene, and everything that happened and we’re so close to it, they didn’t want anybody here,” he said. “They told me yesterday it would be a couple hours, and here we are this morning. I had to sleep in my truck.”

Gonzalez says his wife has been in their home— which they just moved into five days ago— since the incident unfolded.

“My wife was on the phone, she was locked in the closet, telling me they’re shooting it out here, something bad is happening,” he said.

Now, authorities will not let him, nor any of the other area residents, into or out of the cordoned-off area.

It wasn’t until around 10 a.m. Thursday that he could finally get her some food, thanks to the assistance of a San Bernardino Sheriff’s deputy, who walked it to her.

“She’s been very nervous and crying… and she’s by herself,” Gonzalez said of his wife. “They will not let me in there.”

Police said they do not have a time frame as to when residents will be allowed to enter or exit the crime scene area, as authorities continue to process the scene where suspected shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were killed Wednesday in a police shootout. However, they are making a few exceptions as the day progresses on a case by case basis.

Meanwhile, officials from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies continue to have a heavy presence in the area.

“The integrity of this investigation is paramount and we are applying a number of federal resources,” the assistant FBI director for Los Angeles, David Bowdich, said on Thursday. “We are working with local agencies.”

Bowdich also mentioned that as authorities comb through all the evidence, both physical and digital, additional experts are being flown to the area.

Federal officials in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the nation tried Thursday to uncover the motive for the attack and determine if there was an international terrorism component or if it should be regarded strictly as workplace violence.

President Barack Obama called it part of a pattern of mass shootings with “no parallel anywhere else in the world,” and Thursday morning he ordered that the Stars and Stripes be flown at half-staff at all U.S. federal facilities in the United States and abroad and on all U.S. Navy ships.

Full coverage:

• California Mass Shooting: What We Know About Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik
• 2015 ‘Mass Shootings’ In The United States: More Than One A Day
• In Wake of Mass Shooting, Gov. Brown Cancels Tree Lighting Ceremony
• ‘Moment of Silence’ at DC Tree Lighting for Mass Shooting Victims
• How You Can Help Survivors of the San Bernardino Mass Shooting
• Obama: Motives Unknown, But Action Needed After San Bernardino Mass Shooting

— City News Service and Patch Editor Autumn Johnson contributed to this report.

Photos courtesy Renee Schiavone/ Patch