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FBI: shooters were ‘radicalised’

ABC

ABC

David Bowdich, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, said investigators were still trying to determine how and by whom Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik were radicalised before the shooting.

“But I will say this – as the investigation has progressed, we have learned and believe that both subjects were radicalised and have been for quite some time,” he said.

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The FBI said the couple had been practicing with the weapons as recently as a week before the massacre.

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A couple embraces following a shooting that killed 14. Photo: AAP

Farook and Malik left their baby daughter at home on Wednesday before heading to the Inland Regional Centre in San Bernardino east of Los Angeles, where some of Farook’s colleagues had gathered for a year-end party.

The couple opened fire, killing 14 and wounding 21 others. They were killed hours later in a wild fire-fight with police.

It is still not clear what the motive was for the worst attack on US soil since the 9/11 attacks.

The FBI said it was still questioning the grandmother of one of the suspects and was also examining if there was anyone else apart from the suspects – who was involved in financing or pre-planning the attack.

Mr Bowditch cast further doubt on whether the couple were part of a larger organisation of militants.

“I want to be crystal clear here: We do not see any evidence so far of … an outside-continental-US plot,” he said.

“We may find it some day, we may not. We don’t know.”

Agents believe the couple had been planning more violence because of their cache of ammunition and pipe bombs.

– ABC

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