San Bernardino authorities identified the two deceased suspects in Wednesday’s deadly shooting as Syed Farook, 28, and Tasfeen Malik, 27.
Authorities said the two were in an intimate relationship, possibly married. The director of the local Council on American-Islamic Relations group said Farook and his wife had a 6-month-old baby.
Both were killed during a gun battle with police which followed a brief car chase.
Public records indicate a “Syed R. Farook” had been employed for years as an environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County. Police said he was at the county holiday party before leaving in an “angry” manner and returning armed with Malik.
A man who claimed to be Farook’s father told the New York Daily News his son was a health technician who inspected restaurants and hotels.
“I haven’t heard anything. He worked in a county office,” the man told the Daily News. “He’s married and has a kid. We’re estranged because my wife got the divorce, and they are together. She doesn’t want to see me.”
The man, who was not named by the Daily News, added that his son was a devout Muslim.
“He was very religious. He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back. He’s Muslim,” he told the newspaper.
A co-worker told the Los Angeles Times that Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia where he found a wife he met online.
Coworkers expressed shock that Farook was named in the shooting.
“He never struck me as a fanatic, he never struck me as suspicious,” Griselda Reisinger, who previously worked with Farook, told the Times.
Patrick Baccari, who shared a cubicle with Farook, said the 28-year-old appeared to be “living the American dream.”
Authorities have not ruled out terrorism, but have stressed a motive is not yet clear. The shooting killed 14 and wounded 17.