A former next-door neighbor and “longtime friend” of one of the San Bernardino shooters has been charged with conspiring to commit crimes of terrorism, federal prosecutors said Thursday, in a case that has continues to confound counter-terrorism experts.
Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people on 2 December in a community center in San Bernardino, California. The pair were armed with two handguns, bought by Farook, and two semiautomatic rifles, bought by their neighbor Enrique Marquez Jr, three years ago. All were legal purchases, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Farook, 28, and Malik, 29, died in a shootout with police after the initial attack. Hours later, Marquez posted a brief, misspelled message on Facebook: “I’m. Very sorry sguys. It was a pleasure.” He then checked himself into a UCLA psychiatric facility, and four days later was released into FBI custody.
Marquez is said to have planned attacks with Farook in 2011 and 2012. He is also charged with unlawfully purchasing two of the assault rifles used in the shooting, but there is no evidence to show that he participated in that attack. A third charge is for defrauding immigration authorities by “entering into a sham marriage” with a member of Farook’s family.
Following an appearance at Riverside federal court on Thursday, Marquez had deputy federal public defender Young Kim appointed as his lawyer. He was not asked to enter a plea. That will happen at a hearing on 6 January, a court source said.
“Mr Marquez conspired with Mr Farook to commit vicious attacks, as set forth in today’s charges,” said US attorney Eileen M Decker in a statement. “Even though these plans were not carried out, Mr Marquez’s criminal conduct deeply affected San Bernardino County, Southern California and the entire United States when the guns purchased by Marquez were used to kill 14 innocent people and wound many others.”
Decker said there is no evidence that Marquez had any advance knowledge of the San Bernardino shooting.
On the day of the shooting, Farook placed an IED on a table at the center where the shooting took place, according to the affidavit. Marquez had purchased explosive powder, which was later found in Farook’s home. Marquez allegedly told investigators that he and Farook had reviewed instructions in Inspire, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula’s official publication, to get information on how to make IEDs.
But the FBI said in 2011 and 2012, Farook and Marquez planned attacks that were not carried out. Marquez told investigators that the planned attacks were meant to “maximize the number of casualties that could be inflicted”.
Their plans included an attack on Riverside Community College, a school they had both attended. They also planned to attack State Route 91 during rush hour. The men purchased firearms, tactical gear and ammunition in anticipation of these attacks, according to the affidavit.
Investigators said Marquez bought weapons for Farook – a sport rifle in November 2012 and an A-15 rifle in February 2012. Marquez also purchased explosives at this time – “in furtherance of his and Farook’s plans to create bombs and commit mass killings,” according to the affidavit.
Farook and Marquez met in 2005, when they were next-door neighbors. Marquez was neighbors with Farook and Malik until a few months ago, and his wife is a sister of the wife of Farook’s older brother. The marriage fraud charge alleges that a member of Farook’s extended family paid Marquez $200 per month for participation in a marriage.
The FBI said Farook introduced Marquez to radical Islam after Marquez became a Muslim in 2007.
“Over the next few years, Farook provided Marquez with radical Islamic materials, and by 2011, Marquez spent most of his time at Farook’s residence listening to lectures and watching videos involving radical Islamic content,” the FBI’s statement said. But members of his local Islamic center have said he was not religious, rarely came to the mosque and drank regularly despite Islam’s prohibition of alcohol.
After 2012, the FBI said Marquez distanced himself from Farook “for a variety of reasons, including the arrest of Ralph Deleon and others on material support for terrorism charges in November 2012”.
Neighbors have described Marquez as friendly but awkward and apparently lonely. He and Farook were close, according to a friend who spoke with the Daily Beast, and liked to work on old cars and practice shooting together. Marqeuz recently worked as the doorman at a local bar, where the owner described him as “emotionally immature” and into comic books.
Marquez was fired from another job, as a Walmart security guard, after investigators publicly linked him to the shooters.
County records show that he married Mariya Chernykh, a Russian immigrant who came to the US on a J-1 “cultural exchange” visa, in 2014.
Malik, a Pakistani citizen who had lived in Saudi Arabia for most of her life, had used a K-1 “fiancee” visa when she arrived in the US in 2014. FBI assistant director David Bowdich said last week that Malik and her husband, whom she met in Saudi Arabia, were radicalized years before the San Bernardino attack.
On Wednesday, FBI director James Comey said investigators have found no evidence that Farook or Malik had communicated with any other plotters in the US or abroad. He said that the couple communicated about their attack in private messages, and that despite some reports, Malik did not make any public social media post in support of terrorism in the months before she arrived in the US.
Comey said that Farook self-radicalized around the time of the aborted attack.
Farook and Malik were buried on Tuesday at a ceremony guarded by FBI agents. President Barack Obama plans to meet privately with the families of victims in San Bernardino on Friday.
