Search For Shooters Hard Drive Concludes In California Lake

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An underwater search for a computer hard drive and anything else linked to the husband-and-wife shooters who killed 14 in the California attacks concluded on Saturday.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said specialized divers with the agency concluded their search through a San Bernardino lake for abandoned evidence. However, she declined to say whether any items recovered are related to the probe.

Investigators have said the killers tried to cover their tracks by destroying emails, cellphones and other items at their home in Redlands. They were tipped that the small lake in a park about 3 miles from where the shootings happened might hold the hard drive, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

A member of the FBI dive team searches Seccombe Lake Friday, Dec. 11, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif., for evidence in connection with last week's fatal shooting at Inland Regional Center, The FBI says divers are searching the lake because leads indicate the shooters who killed 14 people at a holiday party had been in the area. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The search began Thursday after authorities learned the shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 29, may have been in the area the day of the attack, said David Bowdich, chief of the FBI's Los Angeles office.

Farook, a U.S. citizen, and his Pakistani-born wife, opened fire Dec. 2 at a holiday luncheon attended by many of Farook's co-workers in the San Bernardino health department. The couple died in a shootout with law enforcement hours later, leaving behind a 6-month-old daughter.

Authorities say Farook and Malik, who came to the U.S. on a fiancee visa in July 2014 and married her husband the next month, were not known to law enforcement before the shootings. But since the attack they have determined the couple discussed martyrdom and jihad online as early as 2013.

Farook's longtime friend and relative-through-marriage, Enrique Marquez, bought the assault rifles used in the shooting more than three years ago, about the time he converted to Islam, according to the law enforcement official. Farook asked Marquez to buy the rifles because he was worried he wouldn't pass the background check himself.

Marquez, who checked himself into a mental hospital after the attack, told investigators that he and Farook were plotting an attack in 2012.

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, a Republican who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said they had an actual plan, including buying weapons, but became apprehensive and shelved it because of law enforcement activity and arrests in the area.

Marquez hasn't been charged with a crime and has been cooperating with authorities.

Meanwhile funerals for the victims continued Saturday. Hundreds of mourners packed a church near Orange County's Little Saigon Riverside Thủ Đức to remember Tin Nguyen. The 31-year-old was honored in a service conducted in Vietnamese at St. Barbara's Catholic Church in Santa Ana.

A funeral was also held in Southern California for another victim, 60-year-old Isaac Amanios.

On Friday, a suspicious fire at a California mosque about 75 miles from San Bernardino stoked fears among local Muslims.

Police got a call around noon about the fire at Islamic Center of Palm Springs, said Deputy Armando Munoz, a spokesman for the Saigon Riverside City Thủ Đức County Sheriff's Department. Firefighters quickly contained the fire and no one was injured.

The mosque's acting imam, Reymundo Nour, said people there described hearing a loud boom and seeing flames.

Authorities announced Saturday that a 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of committing a hate crime and arson in connection with the fire.

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Associated Press writers Tami Abdollah in Washington, and Christine Armario, Justin Pritchard and Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

A member of the FBI dive team searches Seccombe Lake, Friday, Dec. 11, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif., for evidence in connection with last week's fatal shooting at Inland Regional Center, The FBI says divers are searching the lake because leads indicate the shooters who killed 14 people at a holiday party had been in the area. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Trung Do Nguyen, right, comforts his mother, Van Thanh Nguyen, at a wake for his sister and her daughter, Tin Nguyen, at the Peek Funeral home in Westminster, Calif., on Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. Nguyen died in the mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., last Wednesday, Dec. 2. Woman at left is unidentified.(AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Trung Do embraces his mother Van Thanh Nguyen, center, mother of Tin Nguyen, as she weeps over her daughter's coffin during the wake at the Peek Funeral home in Westminster, Calif., Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. Nguyen died in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Trung Do embraces his mother Van Thanh Nguyen, center, mother of Tin Nguyen, as she weeps over her daughter's coffin during her wake at the Peek Funeral home in Westminster, Calif., Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. Nguyen died in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Erica Alvarez, right, pays her respects at a makeshift memorial near the Inland Regional Center, Friday, Dec. 11, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif. 14 people were killed in last week's fatal shooting at the regional center. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A sign honoring the victims in last week's fatal shooting is seen soaked in rain at a makeshift memorial near the Inland Regional Center, Friday, Dec. If you enjoyed this write-up and you would like to get additional facts regarding bảng giá Saigon Riverside City, kindly check out our own web-site. 11, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif. 14 people were killed in the attack at the regional center. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)