Summary: The lawyer of the San Bernardino shooters’ family says they had no idea that the attack was going to happen.
The family of the deceased married couple that allegedly murdered 14 people in San Bernardino has hired attorney David Chelsey to represent them. In an interview on CNN, he defended the family.
“They never saw any warning signs or any real characteristics that would let them know that any of this was going to take place,” Chelsey told CNN. “There’s so little there to understand or explain what happened or why it happened.”
Chelsey then bizarrely put out conspiracy theories on why the dead couple were no modern day Bonnie and Clyde and that the Sandy Hook massacre, which some have likened to the San Bernardino shooting, may not have even happened.
“It doesn’t seem plausible to us that this petite woman would be involved in this sort of hyper-caricatured, Bonnie and Clyde crazy scenario,” Chelsey said. ‘There were a lot of questions drawn with Sandy Hook and whether or not that was a real incident or not.”
The couple, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, were accused of killing 14 and injuring 21 Wednesday at a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center, a social services agency where Farook had been employed. The terrorist act was the deadliest mass shooting in three years.
Hours after the massacre, Farook and Malik were killed in a shootout with police.
The couple had a six-month-old baby. Farook’s brother-in-law Farhan Khan was angry at Farook and has begun adoption proceedings.
“In this life some people cannot have kids. God gave you a gift of a daughter. And you left that kid behind … What did you achieve?” Khan said.
Authorities believe Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to ISIS on Facebook in a since deleted post. She used an account under a different name and deleted her digital footprint before the attacks. There is no proof that the Islamic State directed the attack.
A federal law enforcement official told the New York Times, “At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting.”
Authorities said the couple had numerous weapons in their car and home. Police discovered two assault rifles, two semi-automatic handguns, and over a thousand rounds of ammunition in their car. Their home also had thousands of rounds as well as 12 pipe bombs.
The FBI is now investigating whether terrorists are now recruiting homegrown extremists in the U.S. instead of having individuals travel to Syria to join ISIS. The agency found evidence that Farook knew people with ties to possible terrorist activities, and the Pakistani-American Farook visited Saudi Arabia in July of 2014. Malik was born in Pakistan and recently lived in Saudi Arabia. Farook brought her home after meeting her online.
Source: http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/san-bernardino-shooter-isis-facebook-1201653461/