Farook, 28, had been an employee of the city’s public health department for five years by the time he attended a department party yesterday at the Inland Regional Center. Following a possible dispute, he reportedly left the party and returned armed to the teeth with his 27-year-old wife, launching a massacre that would leave 14 dead. “There had to be some degree of planning that went into this,” Police Chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters. “I don’t think they just ran home and put on these tactical clothes.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that Farook, who was born in the U.S., recently traveled to Saudi Arabia, and “returned with a new wife he had met online.” The couple reportedly have a six-month-old baby. Acquaintances told the Times that he had not exhibited suspicious activity in the past, and that he seemed to be “living the American dream.”
It is still unclear whether a third individual taken into custody was involved in the shooting.