As California county workers mingled Wednesday morning at a holiday banquet, a pair of maniacs intent on murder barged in with guns blazing.
The merciless masked killers, in matching military garb and body armor, executed 14 helpless victims and wounded 17 more at the Inland Regional Center in a lightning strike sparked by either a simple dispute — or terrorism, authorities said.
THE VICTIMS OF THE SAN BERNARDINO CALIFORNIA MASS SHOOTING ON DECEMBER 2, 2015
The mass murderers — a couple identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27,— were gunned down four hours later and 2 miles away when police pumped a fusillade of bullets into their fleeing SUV on a quiet residential San Bernardino street.
Cops said Farook and Malik were either married or dating.
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One police officer was wounded in the wild gun battle that left the SUV shattered in the middle of the street. Its windshield was riddled with bullet holes, its tires shot out and its other windows blasted to pieces — a ghastly scene in a stunning day of violence.
A third person was captured as he fled from the scene of the afternoon gunfight, said San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan. But the chief could not say if that person was linked to the earlier killings.
The suspects had escaped the blood-spattered murder scene without swapping a single gunshot with the horde of law enforcement descending on the center, a social services facility for people with developmental disabilities.
Farook, an American citizen, worked for the San Bernardino County Department of Health for the past few years and had a young daughter, his shocked father told the Daily News.
“I haven’t heard anything,” the elder Syed Farook told The News before his son’s name became public. “He was very religious. He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back. He’s Muslim.”
The shellshocked dad said his son worked as a health technician inspecting restaurants and hotels and graduated from La Sierra High School in Riverside in 2003.
Farook’s brother-in-law said he was in “shock” over what happened.
“I have no idea why he would do that, why would he do something like this,” Farhad Kahn said during a press conference hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself.”
Kahn said he last spoke to Farook about a week before the massacre.
The FBI later rammed down the door and searched a home in nearby Redlands where Farook was living.
Neighbor Andrea (Annie) Larsen said Farook lived at the home with his wife, mother and small child.
“They sounded really happy. I did notice there were lots of packages being dropped off and he was in the garage working on stuff. But that seemed normal to me. It’s Christmas and people are getting packages dropped off,” she said.
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Asked if she now suspected that some of the packages might have been ammunition or other material related to the attack, Larsen said it was a scary thought.
“If I think about it like that, absolutely, it’s terrifying. I have hope in the world and hope in people, and it’s hard when that hope is challenged in such a terrifying way,” she said.
Co-workers said Farook had traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a new wife he met online, according to reports. The couple had a baby and appeared to be “living the American dream,” Patrick Baccari, a food inspector who shared a cubicle with Farook, told the Los Angeles Times.
The slaughter inside the center marked the worst American mass killing since 26 people were executed three years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
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“These are people who came prepared,” Burguan, the police chief, said about the killers. “They were dressed and equipped in a way to show they were prepared . . . They came in with an intent to do something.”
The attackers left behind some sort of explosive device as they drove off, terrifying scores of office workers cowering in their wake.
The two slain killers were wearing “assault-style” clothes and carrying assault rifles and handguns when their bodies were pulled from the black SUV, the chief said. At least two of the guns were purchased legally, according to officials.
David Bowdich, head of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said there were indications that terrorism was the motive — but said it was too soon to say so for sure.
“I am not willing to go down that road just yet,” he said. “We will go where the evidence takes us.”
Police said that Farook bolted from the holiday bash after arguing with another attendee, and then returned a short time later with his accomplice.
The massacre took mere minutes, another sign that the killers — each toting an assault-style weapon — marched inside “with a purpose,” said Burguan.
The trio disappeared into the San Bernardino sunshine immediately after the 11 a.m. shooting spree.
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Their freedom was short-lived. The pursuit that left the pair dead and a cop injured began at Farook’s home in Redlands, where cops went after receiving a tip, the chief said.
Cops exchanged gunfire with the pair in the SUV before the wild shootout ended, less than 2 miles from the Inland center.
The morning began with the San Bernardino County Department of Health holding a holiday banquet inside the building, said Inland CEO Marybeth Field.
Terrified workers hid behind locked doors, lying facedown on their office floors, or crouched inside closets until they were led out by police who conducted a painstaking search of the property.
“People shot,” one of the trapped employees texted her dad. “In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us.”
Ten of the surviving shooting victims were listed in critical condition, officials said.
The woman made it out unharmed, as did scores of other workers. The wounded were treated at a makeshift triage center set up outside the three buildings.
Two witnesses described rapid bursts of gunfire, with loud booms echoing outside the facility. A brief bit of silence between volleys suggested the killers reloaded and resumed shooting.
There was no indication that any children were among the dead and wounded.
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One shooter walked into an office and opened fire, according to a man whose wife was hiding inside.
“They locked themselves in her office,” Marcos Aguilera said after speaking with his wife. “They seen bodies on the floor.”
Another employee pinned inside the building during the chaotic scene texted his father that fire alarms sounded throughout the building, interrupting the workday routine.
“He said something was going on, there were a lot of shooters in the building,” said Paul Leroux, whose son escaped without injury. “They believed there might be a bomb.”
Dozens of police, fire and medical vehicles responded to the scene, with 150 police officers reported by a witness. Officials placed 70 local schools under lockdown as the manhunt for the shooters continued.
It was at least the 355th mass shooting in the United States this year, according to the group Stop Handgun Violence.
President Obama was briefed at the White House about the latest rampage, which came just five days after three people were killed and nine wounded at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic.
“We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world,” said Obama. “We should never think this is something that just happens in the ordinary course of events, because it doesn’t happen with the same frequency in other countries.”
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The National Rifle Association, which has opposed the President’s efforts on gun control as the number of mass shootings climbed, offered no comment.
The Loma Linda University Medical Center was braced for “an influx of patients” — but wound up with five, two in critical condition. The Arrowhead Regional Medical Center received eight patients from the facility.
Wounded victims were seen being taken away on stretchers from the nonprofit center across the street from the San Bernardino Public Golf Course.
Among the injured was Kevin Ortiz, 24, shot twice in the leg and once in the shoulder during the rampage. The wounded newlywed called both his wife of two weeks and his father to assure both that he survived.
Inland board member Sheela Stark reached out to a dozen colleagues after the shooting — but only heard back from one.
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A group of people from the center were seen walking en masse from the shooting scene about 45 minutes after the gunfire started. They had filed out, their hands raised in the air, a short time earlier.
All were then loaded onto buses and driven off by police. Cops planned to interview survivors to determine exactly what happened before, during and after the killers struck.
The Inland Center, which opened in 1971, assists individuals with developmental disabilities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Its staff of 670 people treats more than 30,000 clients.
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With News Wire Services
With Marty Graham
