Officials believe as the massacre on a county employee holiday party was underway Wednesday, suspect Tashfeen Malik pledged her allegiance to an Islamic State leader on Facebook, CNN reported Friday.
An anonymous U.S. official told the network Malik, the wife of fellow attacker Syed Rizwan Farook, posted support for IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi using an account registered to another name. The couple also took steps to delete their online postings in the days leading up to the attack.
Officials have not formally labeled the mass shooting, which left 14 dead and 21 wounded, an act of terrorism. They have also not offered a motive for the attack, and there remains no evidence that the Islamic State directed the couple to carry out the shooting.
“At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting,” an unnamed official told The New York Times.
Malik was a Pakistani woman who entered the U.S. in 2014 on a so-called fiancee visa and became a conditional U.S. citizen when she married Farook. Both were killed in a shootout with police hours after the attack.
This post has been updated.
I think the new wife was the inspiration of the whole event. The guy was born here and lived a normal life and didn’t even show signs of religious interest until he met and married the girl.
I am not sure we can say that much about it honestly. Just because somebody seemed normal does not always mean they are or were. Some people can be deeply religious it but do not parade it to the world. It really could have just been an out for other issues too. Hard to say at this point.
Yup. And this couldn’t play in to GOP’er hands better if it were crafted by them to do so. An American born Muslim man and a Muslim women here on a “fiancee’s visa” shoot 14 Americans to death. I am not sure how much better it could be for those that want all of Islam to be the enemy. It’s perfect for Trump…Cruz…it’s damn perfect.
Hate to say it but this is going to move a lot of folks in the Anti-Muslim direction. And they are probably not wrong. We have a problem. Europe has a problem…despite what folks might want to say.
As difficult as the job may be, if the NSA insists on mass surveillance, they’ve got to do a better job of thwarting these attacks in real time. Or what’s the point? Following a digital trail after the attack is cold comfort for the victim’s families.
You have no idea when the men started to sympathize with the ISIS folks. It might be comfortable to think the way you do but he may have sought out that fiancee because he shared sentiments with her. This is a mess and it may require American Liberals to do some soul searching. I’m not saying we have to go wingnut but there is a problem…bigger than Liberals want to believe but smaller than Conservatives want us to. It’s there.