Who Were Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik?

While police say they know who massacred 14 people Wednesday at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, the killers’ motives remain a mystery.

Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik committed the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since Sandy Hook in December 2012 before being killed by police, authorities say.

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Farook, 28, and Malik, 27, had been married for two years, according to Hussam Ayloush, head of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group.

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Farook, an American citizen, was an environmental health specialist with the San Bernardino County health department, which was hosting the holiday party at the Inland Regional Center where the attack took place.

He had been there five years. {snip}

He graduated from California State University, San Bernardino, with a degree in environmental health in 2009.

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Farook was at the party but left abruptly before the shooting. He seemed angry, witnesses told police. He returned. And, along with Malik, he went into the building and began firing, authorities said.

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Those who worked with Farook described him as quiet.

“I would say hi and bye. But we never engaged him in conversation. He didn’t say much at all,” said Griselda Reisinger, a former co-worker, told the Los Angeles Times.

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Co-worker Patrick Baccari told the Los Angeles Times that Farook recently visited Saudi Arabia to meet a woman he met online. They returned as husband and wife.

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{snip} But his father told the New York Daily News that Farook was very religious.

“He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back,” he said.

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The attackers were “dressed in dark, kind of tactical gear,” San Bernardino police Chief Jarrod Burguan said. They carried rifles and semi-automatic handguns.

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“These were people that came prepared,” Burguan said. “There had to have been some degree of planning that went into this.”

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A bag believed to belong to the shooters was found inside the conference room. Inside, investigators found three rudimentary explosive devices packed with black powder and rigged to a remote controlled car. The remote for the car was found inside the SUV where Farook and Malik were later killed, a law enforcement official said.

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After carrying out the attack at Inland Regional–where they killed 14 people and injured at least 17–Farook and Malik led police on a chase. Farook fired at officers while Malik drove, officials said. They died in the shootout, which involved 21 officers.