San Bernardino shooting updates: Syed Rizwan Farook’s family was ‘totally shocked,’ attorney says

A suspicious package that forced the evacuation of a UPS facility in San Bernardino on Friday evening was examined by bomb experts and deemed safe, police said.

—Teresa Watanabe

A UPS facility in San Bernardino was evacuated Friday evening after the driver delivering a package to a Redlands home realized the address belonged to the shooters who killed 14 people at a social services agency this week, police said.

Bomb experts from the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department were en route to check the 3-lb. package, which the driver returned to the UPS facility on Victoria Avenue after noting the address. San Bernardino Police Sgt. Gerald Beall said the facility was evacuated about 7:30 p.m. and the surrounding streets blocked off.

San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said on Twitter that the UPS action reflected "an abundance of caution."

“Item from a reputable vendor, UPS called just to be safe. No immediate known threat... Just being safe.” Burguan tweeted.

Beall said no further details were available regarding the vendor, whom the package was addressed to or how many people were evacuated.

—Teresa Watanabe

The FBI has collected physical and electronic evidence, including a dozen pipe bombs and more than 4,500 rounds of ammunition in the attackers' Redlands home and an additional 1,600 rounds in their rental car.

From the couple's townhouse, the FBI seized notebooks, a day planner, data storage devices, a blowtorch, audiocassettes and a pen with an SD memory card inside. Among the evidence were two receipts: one from a Chase bank for an undisclosed amount and a receipt for a $600 withdrawal from Union Bank in Redlands.

In addition, authorities will sift through a "large volume" of electronic evidence, which FBI Director James B. Comey said "these killers tried to destroy and tried to conceal from us."

"There is much about this that doesn't make sense, even for us who do this for a living. That is why we have hundreds of people running down leads all over the world on this and spending tremendous amounts of time trying to understand the electronic records around these two killers," Comey said.

—Jack Dolan, Richard A. Serrano and Louis Sahagun

ABC News has identified the woman in this photo as Tashfeen Malik, one of the two shooters.

An unarmed security guard was on duty at the San Bernardino social services center where authorities say Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik drove up in a black SUV, exited the vehicle equipped with masks and rifles and killed 14 people at an office holiday party, a spokeswoman for the center said Friday.

The ineffectiveness of the unarmed guard in stopping the San Bernardino assault could revive the ongoing debate over expanding armed security, be it private guards or police officers, to public places in order to cope with the wave of mass shootings in the U.S. over the past several years.

— Peter Jamison

Every morning, Salihin Kondoker talks to his wife, Anies, on the phone. He works four days a week in San Francisco and likes to check in.

On Wednesday, he called her just after 11 a.m., but she didn't pick up. The San Bernardino County environmental health specialist, 42, usually calls him back if she misses a call. This time, she didn’t.

Kondoker didn't think much of it until he saw a news alert on his phone: the mass shooting.

He spent the next hour frantically looking for more news, anything that would help him figure out where his wife was.

At 1 p.m., he received a call from a doctor, who told him that though Anies had been shot three times, she would survive. Relief washed over him.

— Soumya Karlamangla

The mass shooting in San Bernardino has state lawmakers looking again at new gun control legislation for California, while leading advocates for restrictions called Friday for the state to close a loophole that allows detachable ammunition magazines like one used by the killers.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) said he will revisit some proposals that previously stalled, and an assemblyman proposed banning the sale of guns to those on a federal "no-fly" list.

— Patrick McGreevy

Amanda Gaspard, an environmental health specialist, had agreed to serve as the emcee for the Department of Public Health's Christmas party.

When the shooters entered the conference room where the party was being held, Gaspard dropped to the floor and hid under a table, her parents said in a statement.

Then she closed her eyes and lay motionless.

After firing multiple rounds, the assailants came toward Gaspard and shot her, her parents said.

“Even while Amanda was lying there bleeding, she was holding her [co-worker’s] hand and praying to God with her,” they said.

Inland Regional Center, where Wednesday’s mass shooting took place, will remain closed through at least Tuesday, according to a statement issued by the facility.

The decision was made in order “to allow investigators enough time to do their jobs and to give the IRC community additional time to cope," the statement said.

Staff members will coordinate with law enforcement to determine whether offices can reopen Wednesday.

The center, which serves 31,000 people with disabilities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said it will reschedule appointments “at the earliest possible convenience.”

— Taylor Goldenstein

Only a handful of worshipers showed up for Friday prayer services at the San Bernardino mosque frequented by Syed Rizwan Farook.

Leaders said the Dar Al Uloom Al Islamiyah-Amer mosque has been targeted with death threats since Farook's name was made public.

"People feel sad and people feel scared," said Tashneem Biabani, who was praying on the women's side of the mosque.

Farook prayed here several times a week, leaders said. Tashfeen Malik never did, they said.

Assistant Imam Mahmoud Nadri, pictured above, was one of several mosque leaders who said he has been interviewed by the FBI. He repeatedly said that Farook's crime "does not have anything to do with Muslims."

"Only someone who is a psycho would do this," he said.

— Kate Linthicum

A Facebook spokesman confirmed Friday that the company took down the profile page that included the post cited by law enforcement officials. He said the post was discovered a day after the shooting when Facebook employees conducted a search of the site for the shooters’ names.

One of the shooters, Tashfeen Malik, pledged allegiance to an Islamic State leader in a Facebook post, two federal law enforcement officials said.

Facebook's policy, the spokesman said, was to remove posts that “support or glorify” terrorism. The post went up Wednesday about 11 a.m, around the same time the shooting began, and Facebook provided the contents of the post to law enforcement, he said.

— Paresh Dave

Korey Roseman, 28, was scrolling through his Facebook feed when one of his friends posted a story about a couple who opened fire on a holiday banquet for county employees in San Bernardino.

The name of one of the shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook, had a familiar ring. Then another friend posted Farook’s yearbook picture from La Sierra High School in Riverside, which Roseman attended before moving to Arizona.

“It’s kind of chilling seeing his picture on the Internet. That’s exactly how I remember him,” Roseman said about his appearance. He added that Farook’s involvement in the shooting rampage was “very shocking and surprising. I wouldn’t have guessed that he would be capable of doing that.”

— Zahira Torres

Authorities in Pakistan are investigating whether Tashfeen Malik had ties to Islamic militant organizations, Pakistani intelligence sources said.

Intelligence agents have questioned members of Malik’s extended family in the province of Punjab, an area that is considered one of the nurseries of Islamist militant organizations, according to Pakistani intelligence agents.

Malik was born in Pakistan but moved to Saudi Arabia with her family nearly 25 years ago, the sources said.

Malik, 29, belonged to an educated, politically influential family from Karor Lal Esan in Layyah district. Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh, one of her father’s cousins, was a provincial minister from 2008-13.

—Aoun Sahi

Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were devout Muslims but not outwardly radical. They were members of a close-knit family with ties to the community. They built and stored crude pipe bombs in their home. And their attack apparently was inspired by but not directed by extremists abroad.

The couple thus had more in common with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Ft. Hood in Texas in 2009, and with Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who killed three people at the Boston Marathon in 2013, than with the Belgian and French gunmen who killed 130 people last month in Paris.

“The challenge the U.S. faces is that there are radical individuals who are being a lot more careful, and it makes them virtually impossible to detect,” said Seth Jones, a terrorism analyst with Rand Corp.

-- David S. Cloud and Brian Bennett

With the debate on gun control and public safety taking center stage following the shooting rampage in San Bernardino, one California Republican congressional hopeful is not only supporting gun owner rights, he is giving handguns away to donors.

Johnny Tacherra, running against Democratic Rep. Jim Costa in the Central Valley, is holding a fundraiser billed as a "2nd Amendment BBQ" at Full Spectrum Firearms in Fresno next weekend.

Donors who give $2,700 to Tacherra's campaign will get either a 9-millimeter or a .40 Smith & Wesson M&P Shield handgun.

The fundraiser was planned before the deadly shooting that left 14 dead, but Tacherra strategist Carl Fogliani said the campaign has no qualms about holding the event after the attack, which the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.

"Some people on the left want this to be about guns," Fogliani said. "I think there are other aspects: trying to focus on the refugee and visa issue and on security."

In fact, Tacherra has been making that point in his rematch against Costa. The Republican is calling for a blanket ban on immigrants coming into the U.S. from the Middle East.

— Javier Panzar

San Bernardino may represent a tipping point.

Because it’s part of our community.

Because it’s not a high-profile political or ideological target, like the Twin Towers or the Pentagon.

Because it leaves you with the uneasy feeling that no place is safe from those who identify with the twisted idea that beheadings and the slaughter of innocents are tributes to God’s greatness.

How do you begin to defeat that?

— Steve Lopez

Relatives of Syed Rizwan Farook “were totally shocked” by Wednesday morning’s deadly attack, an attorney representing the family said.

“None of the family members had any idea that this was going to take place," David Chesley said at a news conference.

The family, along with Chesley and fellow attorney Mohammad Abuershaid, talked with the FBI for four hours Thursday, he said.

Chesley said the interview revealed that authorities have not found any substantial ties linking Farook and Malik to a terrorist group or larger organization.

Abuershaid said the family didn’t know Tashfeen Malik very well. She was a stay-at-home mom, he said.

The family also said through Abuershaid that Farook did not want any other men talking to his wife, as they were very traditional. Men did not interact with her, and even Farook’s brothers had never seen her face, he said. He added that it’s important to note that has no larger implications because many traditional Muslim families live the same way.

— Joseph Serna

If the FBI declares the shooting an act of terrorism, it would be the first Islamist terrorist attack in Southern California. But the region has experienced activities related to Islamist terrorism. The House of Representative's Committee on Homeland Security said 16 Southern California residents have been tied to such activity since 2001.

— Priya Krishnakumar

Chris Nwadike, who was at Wednesday morning's holiday party at the Inland Regional Center, knew his co-worker Syed Rizwan Farook for five years as a quiet, nonconfrontational man.

"I didn't see anything that would indicate this would happen," said Nwadike, a restaurant inspector with San Bernardino County's public health department.

Nwadike took a break from the party to go to the bathroom. Then the attack began.

Before a crowd of thousands at San Manuel Stadium on Thursday, Pastor Joshua Beckley of the Ecclesia Christian Fellowship called on the city to unite:

Watch the vigil:

We are asking readers to help us tell the story of the victims by sharing memories.

Share your own remembrances>>

Shannon Johnson, 45, was the health inspector for Benjamin Vagnozzi when he ran a small catering business. Vagnozzi said he'd "rarely in my life come across an individual who has stood out to me as such a kind and decent man."

The FBI has seized the videotapes of customer traffic and the financial records of a Riverside indoor gun range that may have been frequented by Syed Rizwan Farook, the owner of the business said Friday.

Federal investigators converged at Riverside Magnum Range on Wednesday afternoon, Peter Lee said, “and took our tapes and the records.”

Lee said he was first contacted by law enforcement officers Wednesday night while returning from a cruise to Santa Catalina Island. The agent who called said they had been at his store, which was managed by his son at the time.

“The agent called my cellphone before we even docked at the Catalina Express terminal in Long Beach,” he said. “At first, I wondered why they were calling me.”

A few minutes earlier, he said, “another passenger on the boat asked me if I’d heard about the horrible situation in San Bernardino. I didn’t know anything about that.”

— Louis Sahagun

San Bernardino assailant Tashfeen Malik was 29 years old, according to officials.

San Bernardino police Chief Jarrod Burguan erroneously gave her age as 27 during a Wednesday night press conference.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department later tweeted out her date of birth as 7/13/86.

A birth certificate broadcast by KABC-TV, apparently of the attackers' daughter, listed the mother as "Tashfeen Malik" with an identical date of birth.

We are asking readers to help us tell the story of the victims by sharing memories.

Share your own remembrances>>

Marcus worked as a resident assistant with Sierra Clayborn, 27, when both were in school at UC Riverside.

FBI Director James Comey, in televised remarks Friday, said that:

— The probe is now a federal terrorism investigation led by the FBI.

— The investigation has uncovered evidence of radicalization of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik and potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations.

— Agents are sifting through a large volume of electronic evidence, much of which the couple “tried to destroy and conceal from us.”

— There is no evidence that the assailants belonged to a larger, organized terrorist group or that they were part of a terrorist cell.

— The couple had not previously been known to the FBI.

— Stephen Ceasar

We asked readers to help us tell the story of the victims by sharing memories of their loved ones.

Share your own remembrances>>

Angel, who works at the county's motor pool, got to know the 40-year-old father when Adams picked up cars.

Several victims who were injured in the San Bernardino shooting are still being treated at local hospitals. Hospital officials on Friday informed The Times of their conditions:

--Two are in fair condition and two in critical condition at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

--Two are in fair condition at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.

--One is in good condition at St. Bernardine Medical Center.

— Soumya Karlamangla and Taylor Goldenstein

FBI agents who searched the Redlands home of the shooters involved in a San Bernardino attack earlier this week removed a .22 caliber rifle, dozens of boxes of ammunition, weapons accessories, invoices from two gun sellers, a laptop computer and several data storage devices, according to an inventory the FBI left behind at the scene.

Other seemingly more mundane items removed from the home included Christmas lights, an iPhone, a bank receipt, audio cassettes and a notebook written in a foreign language. From a black Lexus parked nearby, the agents took shooting targets, a U-Haul receipt, packaging for a Go Pro camera, legal documents and other items.

The weapons invoices came from Cheaper Than Dirt and Budsgunshop.com, but the document left at the home did not say what purchases the invoices were for.

Cheaper Than Dirt is a “shooting sports discounter” based in Fort Worth, Texas, that sells guns, ammunition and tactical gear over the phone and online, according to its website. Among its wares are camouflage armored vests, high-capacity magazines and an array of semi-automatic rifles. Its logo features a speeding bullet.

— Kate Mather, Laura J. Nelson and Marisa Gerber

We asked readers to help us tell the story of the victims by sharing memories of their loved ones.

Share your own remembrances>>

San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook had contact with people from at least two terror organizations overseas, including the Nusra Front in Syria and Shabab in Somalia, a federal law enforcement official said Friday.

The revelations came as the FBI formally announced it was investigating the shooting rampage as an act of terrorism.

As the investigation expands, the law enforcement source said, agents are trying to learn more about the contacts that Farook and his wife and fellow shooter Tashfeen Malik had in the U.S. and overseas, “especially those in Pakistan” where Farook visited and Malik was born. One key question, said the official, “is if they had any weapons or terror training in Pakistan.”

— Richard Serrano

According to FBI spokeswoman Lourdes Arocho, the FBI had concluded its investigation at the property and it is no longer an active crime scene.

“When we finish our searches we release the property back to the owner,” she said.

— Richard Winton

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Olivia Bozek said the apartment that reporters were allowed to enter Friday morning is still under investigation.

"My understanding is it was an active crime scene," she said.

Reporters were allowed by a landlord to enter the apartment of San Bernardino assailants Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik. The chaotic scene was broadcast live on news channels.

A man was seen using a crowbar to open the plywood-covered front door, allowing a rush of reporters, photographers and videographers to spill into the home.

Bozek said the Redlands Police Department and the FBI are handling the crime scene at the home.

“As far as they told us, it’s still an active investigation going on over there so I don’t know why there’s people in there,” she said.

— Joseph Serna and Stephen Ceasar

On Friday morning, reporters were allowed by a landlord to enter the apartment of Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik.

A man was seen using a crowbar to open the plywood-covered front door, allowing a rush of reporters, photographers and videographers to spill into the home.

The chaotic scene of reporters and TV cameras going through the apartment was broadcast live on news channels.

Reporters were shown on networks rifling through what appeared to be personal information, including driver's licenses. Some were shown going through photos and entering closets.

The scene had been closed off since the shooting. It was not immediately clear if law enforcement officials had allowed the apartment to be accessed.

Los Angeles Times reporter Kate Mather was among the reporters allowed in.

In the apartment, there were small black tables in the middle of the main room. On one table was a copy of the Koran.

Another table had a lengthy list of dozens of items that the FBI had seized as part of their investigation. The list included Christmas lights, an iPhone, several boxes and bags of various types of ammunition, letters, a passport and gun accessories.

— Kate Mather and Stephen Ceasar

The sister of Syed Rizwan Farook told CBS that she was shocked that her brother and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, could be capable of carrying out a mass shooting that would leave so many people dead.

Saira Khan condemned the Wednesday attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino that killed 14 people and injured 21.

“There is so many things I ask myself,” Khan told the TV news station. “I ask myself if I had called him that morning or the night before and asked him how he was doing and what he was up to. If I had any inclination, maybe I could have stopped it.”

Khan described the couple as “shy and quiet.”

Farhan Khan, a brother-in-law of Farook, told NBC News that Farook was a “bad person” and that the shooting was a "a personal act" unrelated to his faith.

— Veronica Rocha and Stephen Ceasar

Tashfeen Malik, who joined husband Syed Rizwan Farook in the San Bernardino mass shooting that killed 14 people, pledged allegiance to an Islamic State leader in a Facebook posting, two federal law enforcement officials said Friday.

The officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, cautioned that the new evidence did not mean that the militant group directed Malik and her husband to carry out the attack and that investigators think it instead suggests that the couple had become self-radicalized.

Malik, who was born in Pakistan, spent time in Saudi Arabia before becoming engaged to Farook. She gained legal permanent resident status last year after they were married.

One of the officials said the post was made under a different name and had since been removed, apparently by Malik herself. FBI technicians were able to recover it. Officials said the posting strongly suggested the attack was premeditated.

Another federal law enforcement source told The Times that the suspects made an attempt to destroy electronic devices that they owned, which held data that could have helped investigators. The law enforcement source characterized the efforts to destroy the devices as unsuccessful.

Richard A. Serrano, Brian Bennett and Richard Winton

FBI agents on Thursday searched a home in Corona for a second time as they sought more information about the married couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, who authorities say killed 14 people in San Bernardino, a spokeswoman said.

The agents obtained a federal search warrant, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

“The affidavit in support of the warrant is under seal, so I cannot comment further,” he said.

The search of the home in Corona, in the 1700 block of Forum Way, did not result in any arrests, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.

Neighbors said FBI agents and SWAT officers participated in the search.

“FBI agents with bullhorns showed up at 5 a.m.,” said Lorraine Otto, who lives next door to the home on Forum Way. "They kept saying, ‘This is the FBI. Open the door. If you don’t open the door, we’ll break it open.'”

—Richard Winton, Louis Sahagun and Kate Mather

A father of six. A free spirit who befriended strangers in the grocery store checkout line. A mother of three who fled religious persecution in Iran. A woman who was 8 when she and her mother left Vietnam for a better life. The youngest was 26. The oldest was 60.

These are the names and stories of the 14 people killed in the San Bernardino shooting on Dec. 2, 2015. They lived across Southern California, from Los Angeles and Orange counties, in the Inland Empire and the San Bernardino Mountains that tower over the valley where the shooting occurred.

The list will be updated as more information becomes available. It also includes information about some of the 21 people wounded.

Two federal sources tell The Times that Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik unsuccessfully attempted to modify one of the rifles used in the fatal San Bernardino shooting to make it fully automatic.

— Richard Winton

Attorney David Chelsey, who represents the family of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, told CNN, “There is a lot of disconnects and there is a lot of unknowns and there is a lot of things that quite frankly don’t add up or seem implausible.”

Chelsey said the 90-pound Malik was not involved in the shooting and could not have carried the heavy ammunition and tactical gear.

“It just doesn’t make sense for these two to act like some kind of Bonnie and Clyde or something,” Chelsey said. “It’s just ridiculous.”

Chelsey sat with the FBI for three hours to determine characteristics and affiliations that could have motivated Farook to carry out the shooting, he said.

“They couldn’t find anything,” he said. “They were totally stumped. They were totally frustrated.”

Chelsey said investigators are “clueless” about Farook’s motivation.

“There was nothing to characterize to make him act in this manner,” Chelsey said.

— Veronica Rocha

Tashfeen Malik arrived in the United States last year with a K1 visa, which is reserved for the fiancés of U.S. citizens, and allows the foreign-citizen fiancé to travel to the U.S. and marry his or her American sponsor within 90 days of arrival. It is one of dozens of visas that allow foreigners to enter the U.S.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday that K1 applicants, like other visa applicants, undergo an extensive counterterrorism screening that includes checks based on fingerprints and facial-recognition software.

The attack has brought new attention to the previously obscure program, with some advocates for stricter immigration enforcement calling for investigations into the nation’s visa screening process, and for the U.S. to halt its Syrian refugee program.

—Kate Linthicum and Cindy Carcamo

Columnist Robin Abcarian visits Get Loaded, a gun shop five miles south of the Inland Regional Center, scene of the San Bernardino mass shooting.

Her takeaway: "The respectful conversations I had at Get Loaded demonstrate why eliminating guns is a nonstarter."

One law enforcement source said investigators are trying to determine whether explosives left at the scene of the shooting were from a design found in Inspire magazine, the online publication of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The source noted that the design is easily accessible and doesn't mean that the attack was related to Al Qaeda. Police said the device included three pipe bombs attached to a remote-controlled device.

— Richard Winton

Steve Lopez reacts to the San Bernardino shooting:

You sift through your own feelings of anger, helplessness and fear, knowing that mass shootings have happened before, certain that the world is full of fanatics who live to kill, and reminded once more that while we are all pretty safe statistically, there are no longer any safe places.

The dialogue around the mass shooting in Colorado Springs just five days ago focused specifically on domestic issues. For San Bernardino, guns, explosives and Muslim suspects are all a part of the mix, prompting a conversation about more than just domestic gun control, although guns is always a good start.

— Julia Kingsley and Jon Healey