Sources: Evidence Shooter May Have Been Radicalized
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. Increasing evidence this evening that at least one of the San Bernardino shooters may have been radicalized. Law enforcement officials telling CNN tonight that Syed Rizwan Farook who along with his wife shot and killed 14 people at an office holiday party had travelled to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. We are also learning tonight that Farook was in touch with people being investigated by the FBI for terrorism, communicating with them by phone and via social media. Now, this comes as police say Farook and his wife apparently were going to launch more attacks. They found at their home what police are now calling a bomb lab. CBS News just obtaining these photos of some of the homemade bombs found there, including this one that would have been detonated with a remote control car. This, a bag full of possible pipe bombs. In this hour, we're going to take a closer look at the shooters. We're going to talk to their next door neighbor. She says they were a happy, seemingly normal pair. She had no idea that they were making bombs in the garage next door to her. And we're going to speak to a co-worker who sat next to Farook every day. He was in that office complex when Farook and his wife opened fire. So much breaking developments tonight. We begin with Kyung Lah who is OUTFRONT in San Bernardino. And Kyung, you've been talking to Farook's co-workers and you were saying they even threw a baby shower not that long ago. Did they see any sign of a change?</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No signs. And that baby shower is an occasion that they were so friendly with one another that they wanted to celebrate the birth of his baby daughter. He was someone who they described, as being mild mannered, someone who didn't show any outward signs, not a man that they ever imagined at their holiday party would hatch a plan and try to kill them.</s>LAH (voice-over): Just minutes before the killers opened fire on the holiday party, Patrick Baccari left to use the bathroom when the attacks started.</s>PATRICK BACCARI, WORKED WITH SYED RIZWAN FAROOK: I thought somebody booby-trapped the towel dispenser because I was being pummeled as I was pulling the towel out of the dispenser. And so, I looked back at the mirror and I could see I was bleeding -- my nose.</s>LAH: Baccari hid in the Bathroom while Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife fired off 76 rounds killing 14 people. Farook and Baccari shared a cubicle for three years at the San Bernardino County Health Department. They talked about cars, Farook's six month old daughter, regular chat between two co-workers.</s>LAH (on camera): Why do you think he did this?</s>BACCARI: Well, I think his beliefs were contrary to our American dreams. You would think that somebody that's working to the capacity and education level that you are has similar respect, values.</s>LAH (voice-over): Law enforcement sources tells CNN that Farook apparently was radicalized and in touch with people being investigated by the FBI, talking by phone and on social media with more than one person being investigated for terrorism. But a law enforcement source says those talks were infrequent. The last one had been a few months ago, not raising any alarms. No red flags either, say U.S. and Saudi government officials when Farook went to Saudi Arabia. The FBI says, the 28-year-old had also traveled to Pakistan. The couple's landlord who rented the apartment they would later fill with weapons and bomb- making materials saw no sign this was coming.</s>DOYLE MILLER, SYED RIZWAN FAROOK'S LANDLORD: It's beyond my comprehension. Because they seemed like such a gentle, mild person. So I don't know. You just can't tell a book by its cover.</s>LAH: Farook's brother-in-law didn't know.</s>FARHAN KHAN, BROTHER-IN-LAW OF SYED RIZWAN FAROOK: I have no idea. Why would he do that? Why would he do something like this? I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself.</s>LAH: A sentiment echoed by Patrick Baccari.</s>BACCARI: Who wants to call their 16-year-old kid to tell them, they just survived the attack. There's many people that didn't.</s>LAH: Baccari says, the multiple bullet fragments in his body will stay, too risky to remove. What also remains, confusion, the man he so closely knew did this, now turning to anger and fear.</s>BACCARI: I believe every citizen here should be armed to defend themselves in case of this happening but that's not everybody else's belief. I couldn't have defended anybody from the position I was in, even if I was armed. But at least if they tried to come in and get us in that restroom, I would have had some way of protecting the rest of us.</s>LAH: Now, if there's any clue to violence in Farook's past, it is only seen in his parents' divorce records that filed with the court in 2008. And in those records, his mother says that her husband -- her ex-husband now that he was extremely violent, abusive, that he pushed her against the car, this is something that all the children witnessed, that he would threaten suicide, he even threw a television on her. She even filed a temporary restraining order, violence that seemed to elude Farook's life but as an adult, Erin, when he came to the IRC, the building behind me as police continue to comb through this, they still have so many questions about how someone who was so mild-mannered on the outside could have executed such a violent, violent act.</s>BURNETT: Kyung Lah, thank you very much. And we are learning much more about his family. We're going to be talking about that in a moment. But I want to go now to Pamela Brown also in San Bernardino. And Pam, you've been looking at the relationship between the shooters, between Farook and his wife. This is one of the most bizarre and important parts of the story. What have you learned?</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We've learned, according to officials we've been speaking with that it's believed that Syed Farook met his wife in Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2014. Officials say, the last recorded trip he had there was during that summer. He was there for nine days. That is when they believe he met his wife. She then came back to the United States on a fiancee visa and obtained a green card and became a legal permanent resident from there. And frankly, that's all we've been able to learn about their relationship because investigators say these were two people who were not on their radar. These were people who weren't on watch lists, that they didn't have adduce (ph) on them. And so, they are trying to learn more about this relationship and how this was missed. We've learned that officials have been, the FBI has been interviewing their family members and we're told that they have been cooperating but in terms of a motive, that's still unclear at this hour -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: And Pamela, you know, not only are there so many questions about them, it's so unusual that they could have been so off the radar. We also know that it looks likely that they were actually preparing additional attacks. Is that right?</s>BROWN: That's right. In fact, we've learned that they had what appeared to be an ad hoc bomb lamb in the home. Farook's mother, there apparently were 12 explosive devices that were there inside that home, including 4500 rounds of ammunition and remote control cars that they believe they may have intended to use for the explosives. So, really a cache of weapons there and that's part of the reason Erin, that in addition to the fact that Syed Farook appeared to be in touch with FBI terrorism subjects, so they were not high-priority subjects. But all of these combined is leading authorities to investigate whether or not he could have been radicalized. But they're also looking at the possibility this could have just been a workplace dispute or perhaps a blend of both -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much. Annie Larson lives next door to the shooters. Her home shares a back wall with theirs. Annie, you lived next door to them for about six months. What were they like?</s>ANNIE LARSON, SHOOTER'S NEIGHBORS: They just seemed like just regular neighbors, kind of kept to themselves, cordial and I would see a gentleman come home from work and we'd greet each other and say hi, smile, met his mother, I believe, and the woman that lived there. I didn't know their names.</s>BURNETT: You didn't know their names.</s>LARSON: At the time. But --</s>BURNETT: Yes. I know that, you know, obviously now, you know, you're thinking, gosh, you lived so close to them. Police found pipe bombs in the house.</s>LARSON: Right.</s>BURNETT: Thousands of rounds of ammunition. I mean, looking back now, Annie, do you see any clues of what was actually happening?</s>LARSON: In retrospect, there's always things that you can see. Of note lately, they just kept receiving multiple packages but it's Christmastime and that seemed pretty normal. I know he did work in his garage pretty regularly, sometimes the door opened, sometimes it was closed. So I didn't really think of any -- I didn't notice anything particularly out of the ordinary for the area in which I live.</s>BURNETT: What were they like as a couple? Did you notice anything there? Or just, you know, seeming to be very normal American couple?</s>LARSON: Yes. Normal. He was happy. I would see him smile. Kind of entering the house and -- we share backyard fences and can hear -- you can hear each other if you're in the back and could hear the baby that they have there making baby sounds and seemed happy and just normal, a normal life like you do with a little baby.</s>BURNETT: You have a baby yourself. I have a baby myself.</s>LARSON: Yes.</s>BURNETT: The fact that they had a baby here is one of the most impossible things to understand. I mean, you saw them. Did they seem excited about this new baby? Did you have any feelings or see Tashfeen interact with her child? What did you see?</s>LARSON: Just seemed like they were regular moms and dads doing normal life. Nothing really stood out. Seemed happy to be together. So --</s>BURNETT: How do you now feel, Annie, that knowing that this was happening right next door to you? As you say, I mean, this was -- this was adjacent to your home. This was touching your home.</s>LARSON: I think the biggest feeling that as apparent probably in my face is sadness. Sadness for our community, sadness for the lives that have been lost. Sadness that glimmers of hope seems to keep dissipating in all the madness of the world. But there's always hope and hope will always prevail.</s>BURNETT: Annie, when was the last time you saw them?</s>LARSON: I think it was Sunday afternoon. I could see them through the fence. They just seemed happy. They were both kind of in and out of the house there on the patio.</s>BURNETT: They seemed totally normal.</s>LARSON: Totally normal. No idea.</s>BURNETT: Well, Annie, thank you very much for being with me.</s>LARSON: You're welcome. Best to you.</s>BURNETT: Art Roderick is a former assistant director for Investigations for the U.S. Marshals. And Art, you just heard Annie, she lived next door. I mean, literally their house is touched, she said she had no idea they had a bomb lab or an arsenal. I mean, it's frightening you know someone could do that. Could be building what they built. And their neighbors would have no idea. I mean, how easy it is to do this undetected?</s>ART RODERICK, FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR INVESTIGATIONS, U.S. MARSHALS: Well, I mean, I think we've heard this description of individuals before that have gone out and committed heinous crimes. Oh, they were a normal person. They were nice to me. They waved to me. I think you hit on it, Erin, the key part here is that six-month- old baby. I mean, how could they leave that six-month-old baby and commit a crime like this? And whether it's, you know, it hasn't been totally pinned down yet whether these was radicalized individual, whether they were directed by someone, whether this was workplace violence. But I can't see this being workplace violence when you have the tactics that they used, which we have seen used in other terrorist attacks around the world. And to leave that six-month-old child without any parents to, me, again, points another finger in the direction of being radicalized.</s>BURNETT: Yes. I mean, we just heard Annie say how normal they seemed, happy, normal, and normal with their baby. You know, how is that possible? The co-worker said that, too. Everybody has said that. No one has said there was any sign of radicalization.</s>RODERICK: Yes. I mean, they don't want to -- none of these people that become radicalized actually want to attract a lot of attention. Once you start attracting attention, you start attracting law enforcement or neighbors are going to start talking and the word will eventually get back to law enforcement. So, it just -- this is a bizarre set of circumstances from A to Z. This whole scenario, whether it's a hybrid, radicalization or workplace violence, this whole scenario is very bizarre and I think we're seeing something brand new here.</s>BURNETT: Certainly something brand new. Art is going to stay with me. Next, the male shooter traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, communicated with terror suspects. Did U.S. intelligence missed multiple red flags? Plus, the shooters, their home loaded with guns, ammo, bomb- making materials. What do we know about another imminent attack? And new details on the massive manhunt that ended with a ferocious gun battle and two dead suspects?