Pak-origin gunman was in touch with extremists, arms haul recovered

Police said that while searching the apartment of the couple — Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27 — they found an armoury of weapons and explosives including a dozen pipe bombs and thousands of rounds of ammunition. 

FBI has taken charge of the probe into Wednesdays mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, and were combing through evidence, including cell phones and a computer hard drive to determine what prompted Farook and Malik to carry out the attack that claimed 14 lives and left 21 people wounded.

The FBI is treating the shooting as a potential terrorist act, though the agency is far from concluding that it was, two law enforcement officials said.

Farook, who is Pakistani-origin, and Malik, who is a Pakistani national, fired as many as 150 bullets inside the Inland Regional Center and then in the shootout with the police that left the couple dead, officials said. The authorities have also released the names of the 14 victims, ranging in age from 26 to 60.

With the FBI examining Farooks electronic devices, analysts and agents have found evidence that at least a day before the attacks, he began deleting data leading investigators to believe that he was planning the attack. 

“Its not like he got angry and came back and started deleting and destroying things,” an official was quoted as saying by the New York Times.