San Bernardino: couple die in gun battle with police after mass shooting

A couple have been killed in a police gun battle hours after they took part in a mass shooting that left at least 14 people dead and 17 wounded in San Bernardino, California.

Syed Farook and his partner Tashfeen Malik were shot dead by police officers following a car chase through the streets of the city. Police said Farook and Malik, aged 28 and 27, were intercepted and a gun battle with more than 20 officers left their dark SUV riddled with bullets and both suspects dead.

The chase came about four hours after Farook left a gathering of fellow public health employees of San Bernardino county where he worked. Police said he was angry and departed early, only to return with his partner. Both were heavily armed.

The attack at the Inland Regional Center, which lies 60 miles (95km) east of Los Angeles, was the deadliest shooting on US soil since the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012.

The San Bernardino police chief Jarrod Burguan said one officer was shot in the gun battle and was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Two rifles and two handguns were found in the SUV.

During the hunt for the couple a third person was taken into custody, but police said they were confident the couple were the only ones responsible for the killings.

The attack started at about 11am local time. Most of those killed or injured were in one area of the building, police said.

The building was evacuated in the aftermath; people were taken across the street to a golf course, where some were given initial treatment for their injuries.

Hours after the attack police continued to search a house in the neighbouring city of Redlands believed to be connected to Farook. A number of controlled explosions were heard by people at the scene.

Officials of the Los Angeles Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) held a media conference on Wednesday night “unequivocally condemning” the mass shooting.

An emotional Farhan Khan, introduced at the Cair conference as the brother-in-law of Farook, told the assembled media: “I just cannot express how sad I am for what happened. Condolences to the people who lost their life … I’m very sad, and to the victims out there I wish a speedy recovery to them. I have no idea why he would do something like this. I’m in shock myself.”

Muzammil Siddiqi, chairman of the Islamic Council of South California, expressed his “sadness and sorrow” for those killed and injured: “We are in solidarity with them.”

Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of Cair in the Los Angeles area said Farook and and Malik left their baby daughter with Farook’s mother in the nearby city of Redlands on Wednesday morning, telling her that they were going to attend a doctor’s appointment for Malik. Ayloush told CNN that the Farook family “have no reason [about] what made him snap. Was it workplace related? Is it mental illness? Is it some twisted ideology? It is really unknown to us. All they [the family] can do is share with everybody sorrow and prayers.” David Bowdich, the assistant director in charge of the LA field office of the FBI, said he could not rule out terrorism as the reason for the killings. “I know one of the questions that will come up is ‘is this terrorism’, and we don’t know that for sure. It is a possibility but we don’t know that yet and we’re not willing to go down that road yet,” he said.

Burguan, the police chief, said: “We do not have a motive.” He told the media the shooters had entered the center “as if on a mission”, adding: “They came in with a purpose … We have no information to indicate that this is terrorism in the traditional sense; obviously at a minimum we have a domestic terrorism situation.”

Alex Vasquez, an NBC4 cameraman who was driving nearby when a call from his newsdesk redirected him to the scene, said he arrived as shooting still resounded through the building. “They were the last shots fired,” he said later.

“People were running,” Vasquez continued. “People had been shot in the back, arms, chest. I saw a woman who was badly injured. She was on the ground, struggling. I saw her take her last breath.” Vasquez shook his head. “These were people who got up in the morning and went to work and ended up in their worst nightmare.”

Marybeth Field, a member of the board of trustees at Inland Regional Services, said that on any given day the facility had 500 employees on site. She said the San Bernardino county public health department had rented a conference center for a Christmas party on Wednesday. She had a meeting at the center scheduled for Wednesday morning but had not yet arrived when the shooting began.

A local man told ABC7 that he had received a text from his daughter saying: “Shooting at my workplace. People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us.” She said she was locked in an office.

There were reports of Swat team officers in the social services building and aerial photographs of people leaving the building with their hands in the air. Soon afterwards all courts, government buildings and schools in the county were put on lockdown.

Nancy Lungren, assistant director of communications for the California department of developmental services, said the Inland Regional Center was one of 21 facilities in the state that helped to coordinate services and support people with developmental disabilities including autism and cerebral palsy.

“And it can make all the difference,” Lungren said. “They try to keep them in a community, living at home or living in an apartment.”

Police advised residents to avoid the area near Orange Show Road and Waterman Avenue. Early witness reports described three gunmen wearing ski masks and camouflage and carrying rifles, but police later said they were confident a man and a woman were the only ones responsible.

This was the 342nd mass shooting in the US this year, according to Shootingtracker.com, a site that records all incidents with four or more victims (including the shooter). Together, those shootings left at least 447 individuals confirmed as dead and 1,292 injured.

On Friday three people were killed and nine injured in an attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Barack Obama condemned the latest mass shooting – and the lack of political action to prevent them taking place – in an interview with ABC News. “We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere in the world,” the president said. Congress could do more to “improve the odds that they don’t happen as frequently”, he said.

Chris Murphy, the Connecticut senator who had just been elected when the 26 people were shot dead at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, leading him into a campaign for gun control, summed up the feelings of many on social media:

Additional reporting by Paul Lewis in San Francisco