Attackers In California Shooting Had Thousands Of Bullets

The husband-and-wife attackers who slaughtered 14 people at an employee banquet fired as many as 75 rifle rounds in the assault, left behind three rigged-together pipe bombs with a remote-control device that apparently malfunctioned, and had over 1,600 more bullets with them when they were gunned down in their SUV, authorities said Thursday.

At their home, they had 12 pipe bombs, tools for making more such explosives, and over 3,000 more rounds of ammunition, Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said in a grim morning-after inventory that suggested Wednesday’s bloodbath could have been far worse.

Wearing black tactical gear and wielding assault rifles, Syed Rizwan Farook, a 28-year-old county restaurant inspector, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, opened fire at a social service center shortly after he slipped away from a banquet he was attending there.

Four hours later and a few miles away, the couple were shot to death in their rented vehicle in a furious gunbattle with police. During the shootout, the couple fired 76 rounds, while law officers unleashed about 380, the police chief said.

Twenty-one people were injured before the day was out, including two police officers, authorities said. Two of the wounded were listed in critical condition Thursday.

It was the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since the Newtown, Connecticut, school tragedy three years ago that left 26 children and adults dead.

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 in this Southern California city of 214,000.

Reporter

• Matt Guilhem, reporter for KVCR. He tweets @mattguilhem.

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