On the morning of December 2, 2015, at 11:00 a.m., reports came of an active shooting in the conference room of the Inland Regional Center (IRC) in San Bernardino, CA. Employees of the San Bernardino County Health Department were having a Christmas party in the room. Four minutes later, the first batch of first responders arrived at the scene.
At first the media said witnesses saw “three white males” dressed in combat clothes drive off in a black SUV.
Later, the police said there had only been two shooters — a husband-and-wife couple named Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27. Reportedly, Farook, a county health inspector, had attended the same Christmas party but left after some sort of “altercation”. 20 minutes later, he returned with his wife, armed, both wearing combat clothes and black face masks. Before they drove to the IRC, the couple had dropped off their 6-month-old baby daughter at the grandmother’s home, saying they had a doctor’s appointment.
After shooting 14 dead and wounding another 21, the young couple returned to their apartment in Redlands, 5 miles from the IRC. A “tip” brought police to their apartment. The couple took off in their black SUV, heading back to the crime scene for some inexplicable reason, with the police in pursuit. Three miles from the IRC, police killed Farook and Malik in a shootout. Altogether Malik and Farook fired 76 rounds; two police officers were injured, but not critically. Police found “thousands of rounds of ammunition” in the SUV.
Police claim to have found more weapons and a “staggering” amount of ammunition in the couple’s home: 12 pipe bombs, 2,000 9mm rounds, 2,500 .223-caliber assault rifle rounds, and “several hundred” 22-long rifle rounds
Here are the 14 victims. Unless otherwise noted, the presumption is that the victims had all worked for San Bernardino County health department.
- Robert Adams, 40; married to Summer Adams; had a daughter.
- Isaac Amanios, 60; had 2 sons and a daughter; immigrated from Eritrea.
- Bennetta Betbadal, 46, married to Arlen Verdehyou with 3 kids; moved to U.S. from Iran “to escape religious persecution”.
- Harry Bowman, 46, had 2 daughters.
- Sierra Clayborn, 27.
- Juan Espinoza, 50, married father of 2; grew up in Mexico.
- Aurora Godoy, 26, married to James Godoy; one son.
- Shannon Johnson, 46; had a girlfriend Mandy Pifer; reportedly shielded co-worker Denise Peraza (who survived the shooting) with his body. An online fundraising page has been set up to cover expenses involved with sending Johnson’s remains to his home in Georgia.
- Daniel Kaufman, 42, worked at a coffee shop at the Inland Regional Center; has a “boyfriend” Ryan Reyes.
- Damian Meins, 58.
- Tin Nguyen, 31; parents had fled Vietnam when Tin was a child. There’s an online fundraiser page for funeral and other expenses.
- Nicholas Thalasinos, 52; married to Jennifer Thalasinos; had a “heated” conversation about politics and religion with shooter Farook “days before the shooting”.
- Yvette Velasco, 27; single; left behind parents and 3 sisters.
- Michael Wetzel, 37; married to Renee Wetzel; father of 6.
Remember the absence of signs of grief (tears, red eyes, red noses, flushed faces) on the part of families of the Sandy Hook victims?
It’s déjà vu all over again — the family members of San Bernardino victims don’t show signs of grief either.
Here’s Bennetta Betbadal’s family (husband, daughter, 2 sons) being interviewed on TV a day after she was killed. Note the absence of any signs of grief on the husband’s face in this video. ↓
In this video, Betbadal’s daughter grinned and smiled — a day after her mother had been brutally shot to death. ↓
Here’s Daniel Kaufman’s boyfriend Ryan Reyes showing no signs of grief a day after Kaufman was killed (0:16 to 0:38 mark):
Here’s Ryan Reyes again (1:13 to 1:44 mark):
Here’s Michael Wetzel’s wife, Renee, being interviewed by Anderson Cooper. While Renee looked somewhat distraught, there were no tears or other signs of grief:
Here’s Nicholas Thalasinos’ widow, Jennifer, showing no signs of grief (beg. 0:48 mark):
And here’s a law enforcement expert aghast at how police allowed the media into and rummage through the alleged shooters’ (Farook and Malik) apartment:
So what do you make of all this?
~Eowyn