This was terrorism, not a staff dispute that got out of hand

The Herald reports:

The two attackers who killed 14 people in a rampage at a banquet fired as many as 75 rifle rounds at the scene, left behind three rigged-together pipe bombs with a remote-control device that apparently malfunctioned, and had over 1600 more bullets with them when they were gunned down in their SUV, authorities said today.

At their home, they had 12 pipe bombs, tools for making more explosives, and over 3000 rounds of ammunition, Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said in a grim morning-after inventory that suggested yesterday’s bloodbath could have been far worse.

The early reports indicated that this happened after a fight at a staff function, but it is becoming clear it was very pre-planned.

Wearing military-style gear and wielding assault rifles, Syed Rizwan Farook, a 28-year-old county restaurant inspector, and his Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, slaughtered 14 and wounded 17 in the attack at a social service centre shortly after he slipped away from an employee banquet he was attending there.

The couple were shot to death about four hours later and a few kilometres away in a furious gunbattle with police.

As the FBI took over the investigation, authorities were trying to learn why the couple left behind their 6-month-old daughter and went on the rampage – the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since the Newtown, Connecticut, school tragedy three years ago that left 26 children and adults dead.

Quite rare for it to be a husband and wife team, let alone one that leaves an infant behind.

At the White House, President Barack Obama said after meeting with his national security team that it was “possible this was terrorist-related” but that authorities were unsure. He raised the possibility that it was a workplace dispute or that mixed motives were at play.

It could well be mixed motives, but again you don’t just happen to have 3,000 rounds of ammo and 12 pipe bombs at home for a rainy day.

So sad that at basically a company picnic, so many would be killed and wounded.