San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook shot up his co-workers because he was angry over having to attend a mandatory Christmas-themed lunch, where he was coerced to pose for a group photo in front of a decorated tree, the FBI said.
In the photo – taken before Farook excused himself from the 2015 year-end party to fetch his assault rifles – the 28-year-old is seen looking surly, his hands stiffly by his sides, standing next to co-workers, one of whom was wearing a Santa Claus beard.
Emails discovered by investigators reveal Farook’s wife and partner-in-crime, Pakistani native Tashfeen Malik, objected to her husband’s Christmas-themed mandatory training session.
“She had essentially made the statement in an online account that she didn’t think that a Muslim should have to participate in a non-Muslim holiday or event,” San Bernardino police chief Jarrod Burguan told ABC News in an interview that ran on Nightline.
“That really is one over the very, very few pieces of potential evidence that we have that we can truly point to and say, ‘That probably is a motive in this case.’”
Farook and Malik killed 14 civilians and injured 22 others in their attack at Inland Regional Center Dec 2. Both died in a shootout with cops the same day, leaving their six-month-old baby orphaned.
Newly released surveillance video from a local gun range shows Farook practicing with a pistol and assault rifle two days before the attack.
The black-and-white video show the bearded Farook adjusting the sights on his rifle and firing at a paper torso target.
“They had high powered weaponry, they had lots of ammunition. They had bombs at their disposal,” said Chief Burguan.