A Non-Hysterical Review of What We Know About the San Bernardino Shooting and Alleged Shooter

By
Greg Diamond
– December 2, 2015Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

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From video of police during the shootout.

From video of police during the shootout.

[Updated 12/3]  On Wednesday, December 2, 2015, 14 people were killed and 17 injured in a San Bernardino shootout with police after the massacre of attendees at the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health Holiday Party held in a rented conference room at the Inland Regional Center, a building that largely serves the developmentally disabled.  While a third person has allegedly been arrested, the two known shooters — a married couple — were killed later in the afternoon as they headed back from their home in Redlands towards the Regional Center.  The male shooter was an American citizen named Syed Riswan Farook — not to be confused (as happened here and at other media outlets) with his brother, decorated Navy veteran and former CSUF student Syed Raheel Farook; — his co-killer (who sprayed bullets from the back seat of their getaway car was stopped when it was stopped) was a woman who had just come to the United States from Saudi Arabia from 2014, Tashfeen Malik.  Given the Muslim names, let’s start here with this statement made last night by CAIR-LA’s excellent Executive Director Hussam Ayloush:

“We condemn this horrific and revolting attack and offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all those killed or injured.  The Muslim community stands shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Americans in repudiating any twisted mindset that would claim to justify such sickening acts of violence.”

That clear focus and measured tone has been unusual since Farook’s name was revealed this afternoon, as some people have concluded on limited facts that he was part of a Muslim — perhaps even ISIS/DAESH — sleeper cell.

That quote comes from what seems like a well-researched and fair-minded story in Heavy.com, a source with which I don’t recall being familiar before now, called “Syed Farook: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know“.  I’ll reprint the subheadings and strongly suggest that you follow the above link:

  1. Farook Was Possibly Identified by a Witness at the Shooting Scene
  2. His Father Says Farook Was ‘Very Religious’ & Was a Health Inspector
  3. Police Chased the Suspects’ SUV & Exchanged Gunfire With Them
  4. The FBI Says They Have Not Ruled Out Terrorism
  5. Police Found ‘Suspicious’ Items Inside the Building & After the Police Chase

Whether or not any of this is true is unclear.  [Update 12/3]: pretty much, except as corrected in the intro.  At times like this, many people with political agendas act on them.  For my part, though, I don’t see the agenda in this article.  It explains that despite taking place in the Inland Regional Center, this did not involve those people who do such yeoman’s service in treating developmentally disabled adults.  Instead, the city’s Public Health Department, for which Farook apparently worked as a health inspector, had rented out a room there for a holiday party.  It remains a tragedy, but some of the images that people were expressing about the notion of autistic and mentally ill people being slaughtered appear to have been misplaced.

Its narrative is that Farook had been attending the party a departmental training in the morning that was due to turn into a holiday party at noon.  He had left after exchanging angry words with someone, and had come back with at least one, possibly two, other people — one of them possibly but not necessarily a getaway driver — and started shooting the place up.  Regardless of whether they had at some point been holed up in the building, he and his wife — both wearing black combat fatigues — had made in to a black SUV and were eventually stopped and killed in a shootout on Waterman Rd., a major San Bernardino thoroughfare.

All sorts of other rumors have been going around, including that Farook had a tie to the Board of Equalization and attended La Sierra High School and then Cal State Fullerton.  Those two were wrong; true of his similarly named brother. With the help of our readers, we’ll try to run them down in time.  Your help would be most appreciated.

As they say, this story is developing.

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)