• U.S.

San Bernardino Shooters’ Home Was Filled With Bombs and Bullets

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Updated: | Originally published: ;

The married couple whose shooting rampage left 14 dead and 21 wounded at a social-work center in San Bernardino, Calif., had filled their home with thousands of bullets and hundreds of tools to make bombs, authorities said Thursday.

Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik had enough ammunition to pose a further threat had they not been killed, according to San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan.

“Clearly they were equipped and they could have done another attack,” Burguan said.

Multiple news organizations, including the Associated Press and the New York Times, reported Thursday that Farook had contact with extremists. The AP, citing an unnamed American intelligence official, reported that the contact took place on social media.

The couple had than 1,400 rifle rounds and 200 9-mm handgun bullets with them as police hunted them down. Authorities found 12 pipe bombs and “hundreds of tools” to make more explosives at their home at Redlands.

Investigators also found nearly 5,000 more bullets and several hundred long-rifle rounds at the home, according to police.

The two fired up to 75 rifle rounds at victims during their attack Wednesday at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino — and then about 80 more shots at police by the end of their pursuit, authorities said. They were killed in a hail of nearly 400 bullets fired by police.

The couple had dropped four high-capacity rifle magazines and left a remote-controlled bomb at the scene, police said. All four firearms used in the attack — two handguns and two rifles — were registered and legally purchased, Burguan said. The explosive appeared “not to be working,” he added.

Officials also recovered thumb drives, computers and cell phones at the scene, which will be used to help determine the shooters’ motives.

The FBI said it’s investigating whether the suspects’ IED designs came from al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine.

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