CALIFORNIA — Enrique Marquez, the former neighbor of the San Bernardio shooters, purchased the two AR-15s used in the terror attack in San Bernardino.
Marquez is speaking to federal investigators in connection with the case. He reportedly told authorities that both men conceived an attack in 2012 also in California, but they abruptly abandoned the plan.
From CNN: “Marquez told investigators that part of the reason the two didn’t carry out their plans was that they were spooked by unrelated FBI arrests around that time of four people charged with attempting to travel abroad to carry out jihad.
Marquez had bought guns for Farook that were among those used by Farook and his wife in the San Bernardino attacks last week.
Officials caution that Marquez’s claim of a 2012 attack could turn out to be not true and an attempt to deflect his role in helping buy weapons that Farook later used in the San Bernardino attack.
Marquez has told investigators he didn’t know about the plans for the San Bernardino shooting attack. He has not been charged with a crime.”
Marquez allegedly studied Islam with the killers.
He allegedly bought the rifles some three years ago. The firearms were purchased legally.
The FBI raided his Riverside home over the weekend, although, they say he is not a suspect at this time.
According to ABC7, Marquez lives at the home with his mother.
MORE: On December 2, 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, shot and killed 14 people and injured 21 others at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, United States.
They targeted a San Bernardino County Department of Public Health training event and holiday party with about 80 employees in attendance at the rented banquet room. Before the shooting, Farook had attended the event as an employee. After the shooting, the couple fled in a rented SUV. Farook was an American citizen, and his wife Malik was a legal resident of the U.S.
Four hours later, police pursued the two perpetrators in their vehicle and killed them in a shootout. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began a counter-terrorism investigation because of the type of equipment used, the couple’s recent travel to the Middle East, and a Facebook post attributed to Malik in which she pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). FBI Director James Comey said that there was no indication the couple were part of a cell or network, or that they were directed by any group.
(Photo source: Heavy)
