FBI Officially Investigating San Bernardino as "An Act of Terrorism"
The FBI is officially investigating the San Bernardino attack as an act of terrorism, citing “a number of pieces of evidence.”
“As of today, based on the information and facts as we know them we are investigating this as an act of terrorism,” David Bowdich, the assistant F.B.I. director in charge of the Los Angeles office said at a press conference Friday. “We’re investigating it as an act of terrorism for good reason.”
Bowdich offered few details about the terrorism angle during the 10-minute conference, saying only that there were “a number of pieces of evidence that has essentially pushed us off the cliff to say we are now investigating this as an act of terrorism.”
(The female shooter, Tashfeed Malik, reportedly posted an “allegiance to ISIS” on Facebook right around the time the attacks began.”)
Neither Malik nor her husband, Syeed Farook, were under investigation before the attack, Bowdich said, though he did seem to suggest one of them had been in telephone contact with someone already under investigation by the FBI. Farook also traveled overseas in 2013, Bowdich said.
The FBI is currently sifting through the couple’s electronic devices, including two cell phones that they had apparently crushed and disposed of in “a nearby trashcan.”
A reporter also asked about the morning stampede of reporters through the couple’s San Bernardino apartment, which Bowdich essentially said was out of his hands.
“We executed a search warrant on that apartment and last night we turned that over back to the residents. Once the residents have the apartment and were not in it anymore we don’t control it,” Bowdich said, later adding, “Once we boarded up, anyone who goes in at that point that’s got nothing to do with us.”
Still, CNN reports the landlord was taken away in an unmarked law enforcement vehicle later that day.
