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Officials Make First Arrest in San Bernardino Terror Attack — Shooter’s Friend Faces Gun and Conspiracy Charges

Dec 17, 2015  •  Post A Comment

A friend of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook has been arrested, according to a county official. The Washington Post reports that officials arrested Enrique Marquez, who is accused of buying the assault rifles used in the Dec. 2 attack.

Marquez was reportedly being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, Calif., the official said.

He was later charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, according to federal officials cited by The Post. “Marquez, 24, was also charged in federal court with making a false statement in connection with the acquisition of firearms used in the attack, the Justice Department announced,” the Post adds.

The paper reports: “His arrest is the first to stem from the sprawling global investigation into the Dec. 2 massacre at an office holiday gathering. Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple with a young baby, killed 14 people and wounded 21 others in what authorities said was a terrorist attack. The couple died in a shootout with police hours later.”

The Post adds: “Officials say that Marquez and Farook, former neighbors, had discussed mounting an attack in 2012, a year before the FBI says Farook and his future wife began corresponding online about waging violent jihad.”

The report also notes that Marquez and Farook were connected through marriage. “Last year, Marquez married Mariya Chernykh, and her sister Tatiana is married to Farook’s brother, a Navy veteran named Syed Raheel Farook,” the story reports. “A co-worker of Marquez said the marriage to Chernykh was arranged and described it as strained.”

One Comment

  1. In the immediate aftermath of the murder of the 14 innocent people in San Bernardino, mainstream media was gleefully reporting that the guns were purchased legally! They finally had a legally purchased gun tied to terrorism and it fit their agenda perfectly. But law abiding gun owners knew that buying a gun for another person, what is called a “straw man purchase” is completely illegal! Anti-gun people, regardless of their employment in media, are clueless about gun facts, gun laws and gun owners. They operate exclusively from an emotional point of view that has been created by liberal politicians and nurtured by the very media they are a part of.

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