FBI authorities officially announced that they are treating the slaughter occurred in San Bernardino as a terrorist act, after the female shooter pledged her loyalty to a leader of the militant group of the Islamic State through a post on Facebook.
Tashfeen Malik and her husband, Rizwan Syed Farook, died in a shootout with the police after carrying out the slaughter that left 14 dead and 12 wounded people during a holiday at the social service agency Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
If the investigation finds that the attack was carried out under inspiration of Islamic militants, it would become the second strongest attack after the September 11, 2011.
“The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers, and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations,” the F.B.I. director, James Comey, said at a news conference.
Although in the post published by the women she promised loyalty to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the authorities clarified that there is no evidence that indicate that ISIS ordered the attack on his behalf.
During investigations carried out after the attack, authorities found as evidence two cellphones that belonged to the murderers, who were left in a trash can near their home. Then, they started making a thorough review of the couple’s home, analyzing the content of all computers, cell phones and other devices. Among other things found on the property, there were two assault-style rifles, two semi-automatic handguns, 6,100 rounds of ammunition and 12 pipe bombs.
Investigating Farook’s past, authorities knew that the man worked as an inspector for the San Bernardino County Department of Environment Health, the agency that was affected by the slaughter. Due to this, researchers have looked in depth to a report that establishes a discussion between him and a colleague that denounced the “inherent dangers of Islam” before the shooting, said a source in the government of the United States.
The owner of the house of the murderers opened the doors to the media, which prompted that a massive wave of reporters and camera crews inspected the scene in its entirety, so the landlord had to ask the media to leave the place.
Source: Reuters