(MENAFN- Gulf Times) A US-born Muslim who along with his wife gunned down 14 people in California may have been radicalised and had been in contact with known terrorism suspects, reports said on Thursday.
The FBI, which has cautioned it was too early to link the attack to terrorism, has taken charge of the investigation into Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino.
Agents were combing through evidence to determine what prompted Syed Farook, 28, and his 27-year-old Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik to carry out the rampage that also left 21 people wounded.
Law enforcement officials quoted by the New York Times said the FBI was treating the shooting as a potential terrorist act, but the agency was far from concluding it was and the motive remains unclear.
CNN, quoting officials, said Farook had been in contact with known terror suspects overseas and had become radicalised after marrying Malik in Saudi Arabia last year, although an imam at a local mosque he attended said Farook showed no signs of that.
The FBI - who were scouring cell phones and a computer hard drive of the couple - had evidence that Farook had communicated with extremists domestically and abroad a few years ago, the Times said, citing congressional officials briefed on the investigation.
President Barack Obama, who ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until Monday, said a terror attack could not be ruled out but also cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
"At this stage, we do not yet know why the terrible event occurred," said Obama, who has repeatedly called on the Republican-controlled Congress to pass tougher gun control measures, after a string of mass shootings across the US in recent years.
"It is possible that this was terrorist related, but we don't know. It's also possible that this was workplace-related."
The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in the US since the 2012 assault on an elementary school in Connecticut that left 26 people dead, including 20 children.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.