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San Bernardino killers had been radicalized, FBI says

Monday, 07 December 2015 8:25 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 08 December 2015 12:21 AM ]

Syed Farook (R) and Tashfeen Malik arrive in Chicago on July 27, 2014. (NBC News)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says the shooters who killed 14 people in California recently had both been radicalized "for some time."

The Monday remarks by David Bowdich, the FBI assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, strengthen the hypothesis that the shooting was sparked by the Daesh Takfiri group in Iraq and Syria.

*Bowdich speaks to the media about the terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center on December 7, 2015 in San Bernardino, California. (AFP)*

Federal authorities were still continuing investigations that could link Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik to the Takfiris further.

The couple both died a few hours after launching a shooting rampage at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday.

US officials also said that the couple had gone to gun ranges in the Los Angeles area prior to the mass shooting.

*This still video image from a helicopter, courtesy of KABC TV in Los Angeles shows a victim during rescue from a shooting scene in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015.*

Law enforcement officers have so far found five firearms as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition and explosive materials for making pipe bombs.

According to Bowdich, the investigators believe that "both subjects were radicalized and had been for some time."

"I want to be crystal clear here: We do not see any evidence so far of ... an outside-continental-US plot. We may find it someday, we may not. We don't know," he said.

The 29-year-old Malik, who was born in Pakistan, got married to the Illinois-born Farook in Saudi Arbia. She was said to have pledged allegiance to Daesh on Facebook.

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