LOS ANGELES _ The mother of Syed Rizwan Farook, who carried out the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack that left 14 people dead, has agreed to plead guilty to destroying records that connected her son and his wife to the massacre, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Rafia Shareef, 66, will plead guilty to one count of altering records with the intent of impeding a federal investigation, a charge that carries up to 20 years in federal prison. The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said the plea agreement called for no more than 18 months behind bars.
Shareef was living with her son and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, in Redlands at the time of the Dec. 2, 2015 attack. That day, the couple left their infant child with Shareef, falsely telling her they were going to a medical appointment, according to the plea agreement.
Over the next hours, Malik and Farook stormed the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, killing 14 people at a holiday party and wounding 22. The couple then died in a firefight with police.
Shortly before noon, Shareef learned that authorities had linked her son to the rampage. When family members arrived at the home later in the afternoon, she expressed her belief that Malik and Farook were the perpetrators, according to a court filing.
Before leaving the home that day, Shareef walked into her son's bedroom and shredded one document, a map. In her plea agreement, Shareef acknowledged that she knew her son had produced the map and that it was "directly related to Farook and Malik's planning of the attack."
Shareef, a resident of Corona, signed the plea agreement on Feb. 26 and is scheduled to appear in federal court in Riverside on March 16.
