--- title: Obama: 'We Don't Know' Motive Behind San Bernardino Shooting description: It's possible it was terrorist related, but it could also have been workplace related, he said. "But we don't know why they did it." canonical: https://time.com/4134676/obama-san-bernardino-shooting/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-03T16:46:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:05:23.547Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama: 'We Don't Know' Motive Behind San Bernardino Shooting og:description: It's possible it was terrorist related, he said og:url: https://time.com/4134676/obama-san-bernardino-shooting/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcd49db8d2e1160f/698873ad8e060101f9463979/barack-obama-press-conference-calif-shooting.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Obama Makes Statement On San Bernardino Shootings At White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama: 'We Don't Know' Motive Behind San Bernardino Shooting twitter:description: It's possible it was terrorist related, he said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcd49db8d2e1160f/698873ad8e060101f9463979/barack-obama-press-conference-calif-shooting.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama: 'We Don't Know' Motive Behind San Bernardino Shooting by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 3, 2015 4:46 PM UTC  President Barack Obama delivers a statement to the news media after receiving a briefing from his national security team in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 3, 2015. President Barack Obama delivers a statement to the news media after receiving a briefing from his national security team in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 3, 2015.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 3, 2015 4:46 PM UTC President Obama said that while it’s possible Wednesday’s deadly shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. could be related to terrorism, the suspected killers’ motives still remain unclear. Speaking Thursday from the Oval Office in response to the shooting that left 14 dead and 17 injured, he said that not much was known about why husband and wife Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire at a center for disabled people. “At this stage we do not yet know why this terrible event occurred,” he said. “It is possible that this was terrorist-related but we don’t know. it’s also possible that this was workplace related,” he continued. Obama said he was briefed on the situation by FBI Director Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and noted that the FBI has taken over the investigation. The two newlyweds were killed by police on Wednesday. Malik has been identified as Pakistani by federal officials and Farook was born in the U.S. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has also condemned the shooting, which the civil liberties and advocacy organization called ” horrific and revolting.” “The Muslim community stands shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Americans in repudiating any twisted mindset that would claim to justify such sickening acts of violence,” said CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. As the situation unfolded on Wednesday, President Obama [linked the tragedy to what he referred to as a “pattern” of mass shooting](http://time.com/4133723/san-bernadino-mass-shooting-president-obama/?xid=homepage) in the U.S. “The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world,” Obama told CBS on Wednesday. On Thursday, Obama once again called for laws that would stop mass shootings, noting that we “all have a part to play”—from law enforcement to legislators—in making it more difficult for people to access guns. “Right now, it’s just too easy,” Obama said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4134676/obama-san-bernardino-shooting/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4134676/obama-san-bernardino-shooting/"},"headline":"President Obama: 'We Don't Know' Motive Behind San Bernardino Shooting","datePublished":"2015-12-03T16:46:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:05:23.547Z","description":"It's possible it was terrorist related, but it could also have been workplace related, he said","url":"https://time.com/4134676/obama-san-bernardino-shooting/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","Obama","shooting","san bernardino","San Bernardino Shooting"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcd49db8d2e1160f/698873ad8e060101f9463979/barack-obama-press-conference-calif-shooting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcd49db8d2e1160f/698873ad8e060101f9463979/barack-obama-press-conference-calif-shooting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama Makes Statement On San Bernardino Shootings At White House","caption":"President Barack Obama delivers a statement to the news media after receiving a briefing from his national security team in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC on Dec. 3, 2015.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4134676/obama-san-bernardino-shooting/","name":"President Obama: 'We Don't Know' Motive Behind San Bernardino Shooting"}}]}] ```