Officials release ID’s of CA shooting victims

By News Staff

ABC News

news@abc6.com

Officials have released the names of the 14 people killed in the shooting rampage at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California Wednesday.

The dead include: Shannon Johnson, 45, Benneta Bet-Badal, 46, Aurora Godoy, 26, Isaac Amanios, 60, Larry Kaufman, 42, Harry Bowman, 46, Yvette Velasco, 27, Sierra Clayborn, 27, Robert Adams, 40, Nicholas Thalasinos, 52, Tin Nguyen, 31, Juan Espinoza, 50, Damian Meins, 58, and Michael Wetzel, 37.

Of the 14 killed, 12 were county employees. 21 are injured following the attack at the Inland Regional Center, which is a social service facility for people with developmental disabilities. The shooting happened around 11 a.m. local time, during a work event and holiday function for the county health department.

A husband and wife, identified as 28-year-old Syed Rizwan Farook and 29-year-old Tashfeen Malik, entered the center armed with assault weapons and dressed in tactical gear, and started shooting between 65 and 75 rounds.

Farook and Malik fled the scene minutes later in a black SUV where they were later killed in a shootout with police near a Redlands neighborhood.

Farook had worked for San Bernardino County Public Health Department for five years, and was present at the holiday party before disappearing for an hour and a half and returning with the assault weapons.

San Bernardino Police say Farook did not appear to have a criminal record prior to the attack. The four weapons used in the shooting, two “long guns” and two handguns, were purchased legally, but the two long guns, also described by authorities as “assault weapons,” were not purchased by Farook.

The couple had more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition with them and another 4,500 at their house, as well as a dozen explosive devices.

The suspects had a 6-month-old daughter together who had been with one of their mothers, saying they had a doctor’s appointment

The FBI says Tashfeen Malik came to the U.S. in July 2014 on a Pakistani passport and a so-called fiance visa. To get the visa, she had to submit to an in-person interview and biometric and background checks to ensure she wasn’t a threat to public safety or national security.

A U.S. official says the FBI was treating the mass shooting in California as a potential act of terror but had reached no conclusion it was.

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