SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — San Bernardino authorities reported Wednesday as many as 3 active shooters with rifles and "multiple victims" at a social services center. Witnesses report shooters wearing ski masks and vests.
There were reports of multiple victims, Lt. Rich Lawhead told the Associated Press. The San Bernardino Fire Department said on Twitter that there are reports of possibly 20 victims.
Loma Linda University Medical Center emergency hotline reports that it is "expecting an influx of patients from the scene."
Many of the injured were taken from the building on a stretcher and strapped into gurneys.
Police were also investigating a "suspicious device" at the scene, which is also near a golf course.
Marcos Aguilera's wife was in the building when the gunfire erupted. He said a shooter entered the building next to his wife's office and opened fire, KABC-Los Angeles reported.
"They locked themselves in her office. They seen bodies on the floor," Aguilera said, adding that his wife saw ambulances taking people out of the building on stretchers.
Terry Petit said he got a text from his daughter saying she was hiding after gunfire erupted at the social services facility where she works.
Petit choked back tears as he read the texts for reporters outside the center. He said she wrote: “People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office.”
San Bernardino police radio reports said SWAT teams were on the scene and that officers were preparing to accept around 30 hostages who were set to come out of a building at the site.
.@SanBernardinoPD SWAT on scene pic.twitter.com/uFTfdBROOp
— Doug Saunders (@crimeshutterbug) December 2, 2015
Police officers said one shooting suspect left the area "acting nervously."
Authorities said the shooting took place at the Inland Regional Center. which provides services for people with developmental disabilities.
According to its Facebook page, 670 Inland Regional Center staff members provide services to more than 30,200 people in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The center's clients range from toddlers to seniors.
Ana Fuentes, who manages a store about a block from the shooting site, told the Associated Press that police raced to the area but did not instruct her to stay inside.
“There’s maybe like 150 cops going toward Hospitality Lane,” she said, as sirens echoed in the background.
San Bernardino is located about 60 miles east of Los Angeles
Authorities said the shooting took place at the Inland Regional Center. which provides services for people with developmental disabilities.
What the actual fuck.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
For fuck's sake. Do we need to make a "Shootings in the US" sticky or something? Because goddamn this is getting too fucking commonplace. It's BEEN too fucking commonplace.
It started in a service center for disabled people? Hm. There are a few unpleasant deductions I can make from that, but I'll wait to see further results.
Elheru Aran wrote:It started in a service center for disabled people? Hm. There are a few unpleasant deductions I can make from that, but I'll wait to see further results.
My working hypothesis is they denied service provision for whatever bureaucratic reason and someone's relative or spouse or Armok forbid child died as a result.
That is of course the optimistic possibility.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
I think when someone is at the point of committing a mass shooting, the fact that the target is a centre for the disabled is unlikely to provoke a twinge of conscience. They've already left the point where they think other humans matter.
As to weather their was an ideological agenda behind this... I'm not jumping to that conclusion, because while prejudice against the disabled is certainly a real thing, I've never heard of anyone engaging in terrorism over it before, unlike race, gender, religion...
However, the notion of their being three shooters immediately makes me think "group with an agenda" rather than "random nuts".
Elheru Aran wrote:It started in a service center for disabled people? Hm. There are a few unpleasant deductions I can make from that, but I'll wait to see further results.
My working hypothesis is they denied service provision for whatever bureaucratic reason and someone's relative or spouse or Armok forbid child died as a result.
That is of course the optimistic possibility.
Or they had developmental disabilities themselves. Or has the suspected link between lead poisoning caused by leaded petrol and violent crime been debunked?
Grumman wrote:Or they had developmental disabilities themselves.
God damn I hope not. The mentally ill and disabled get enough shit anytime some asshat decides to shoot up some place. If people aren't blaming guns like they blame forks for making people fat and cars for running people over, they are blaming the mentally ill for the shootings and trying to restrict their rights even further.
Shooting up a disabled center makes little sense for any of the usual suspects. Why would right wing racists, muslim extremists, or attention whore shooters attack such a place? Probably doesn't make a lick of sense unless there is a personal connection.
It being a group is different, assuming it is a group and not misreporting as alot of shootings. Most shootings by anybody are lone. A group suggests more planning then a lone nut.
An extreme right wing motivation could be rationalized based upon either eugenics or a perception that they're striking against 'socialist tyranny' by attacking a medical center which is probably at least partially financed with public funds. As for 'attention whore'... well it got attention, didn't it? And aren't they all? I doubt it's Muslims, there just aren't that many crazy enough to do something like this, and if they did, they tend to go for more political or military targets.
But I won't speculate about motive anymore until we know more. It's just fucking depressing and bad enough as it is.
Elheru Aran wrote:It started in a service center for disabled people? Hm. There are a few unpleasant deductions I can make from that, but I'll wait to see further results.
My working hypothesis is they denied service provision for whatever bureaucratic reason and someone's relative or spouse or Armok forbid child died as a result.
That is of course the optimistic possibility.
I'd bet that's the case. That, or someone got fired, or some office romance or rivalry went horribly wrong.
Out on the internets, people are making such outlandish speculations like an ISIS attack (they'd have claimed responsibility by now. Also, the modus operandi is all wrong for an ISIS attack ... the attackers don't appear to have blown themselves up, and ISIS would've gone for something with much greater physical and symbolic impact, like they did in Paris,) or race or right-wing terrorists (the location of the shooting is just too weird for either one of those.)
The strange things about this particular shooting is that eyewitnesses are claiming that there were as many as three gunmen involved; and they decided to make a getaway, instead of getting into a standoff with law enforcement.
That, or someone got fired, or some office romance or rivalry went horribly wrong.
Dunno man, since early reports are saying multiple active shooters. So that doesn't jive with me.
Supposedly there's a conference center occasionally rented out that's part of the facility and they attacked that when it was being used by a third party.
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
Grumman wrote:Or they had developmental disabilities themselves.
God damn I hope not. The mentally ill and disabled get enough shit anytime some asshat decides to shoot up some place. If people aren't blaming guns like they blame forks for making people fat and cars for running people over, they are blaming the mentally ill for the shootings and trying to restrict their rights even further.
Shooting up a disabled center makes little sense for any of the usual suspects. Why would right wing racists, muslim extremists, or attention whore shooters attack such a place? Probably doesn't make a lick of sense unless there is a personal connection.
It being a group is different, assuming it is a group and not misreporting as alot of shootings. Most shootings by anybody are lone. A group suggests more planning then a lone nut.
center for developmentally disabled is the perfect target for shooters in general and terrorists specifically, #1 it's run by leftists so it is 99% likely to be a gun free zone and #2 the nature of the victims will likely cause the requisite hyperventilating and pearl clutching
Last edited by cmdrjones on 2015-12-02 06:16pm, edited 1 time in total.
Terralthra wrote:It's similar to the Arabic word for "one who sows discord" or "one who crushes underfoot". It'd be like if the acronym for the some Tea Party thing was "DKBAG" or something. In one sense, it's just the acronym for ISIL/ISIS in Arabic: Dawlat (al-) Islāmiyya ‘Irāq Shām, but it's also an insult.
"Democratic Korps (of those who are) Beneficently Anti-Government"
Centre director believes attack was aimed at holiday gathering of county employees
Posted at 21:43
Speaking on CNN, Lavinia Johnson said the centre had been rented out for a county employee holiday event.
Her staff began to exit when they heard a fire alarm but got an active shooter message and went back into the building and locked themselves in their offices.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
cmdrjones wrote:center for developmentally disabled is the perfect target for shooters in general and terrorists specifically, #1 it's run by leftists so it is 99% likely to be a gun free zone and #2 the nature of the victims will likely cause the requisite hyperventilating and pearl clutching
The "developmentally disabled" thing is probably a red herring. Apparently there was a county employee holiday party that just happened to be taking place there, and that was what the shooter(s) targeted.
We're probably much closer to answers than we were just a few minutes ago ... according to the BBC liveblog linked previously, the police appear to have caught up with the suspected shooters and shot up their getaway car.
cmdrjones wrote:center for developmentally disabled is the perfect target for shooters in general and terrorists specifically, #1 it's run by leftists so it is 99% likely to be a gun free zone and #2 the nature of the victims will likely cause the requisite hyperventilating and pearl clutching
The "developmentally disabled" thing is probably a red herring. Apparently there was a county employee holiday party that just happened to be taking place there, and that was what the shooter(s) targeted.
We're probably much closer to answers than we were just a few minutes ago ... according to the BBC liveblog linked previously, the police appear to have caught up with the suspected shooters and shot up their getaway car.
true, but the Christmas party angle isnt much better than the "killed people trying to help the disabled" angle...
Terralthra wrote:It's similar to the Arabic word for "one who sows discord" or "one who crushes underfoot". It'd be like if the acronym for the some Tea Party thing was "DKBAG" or something. In one sense, it's just the acronym for ISIL/ISIS in Arabic: Dawlat (al-) Islāmiyya ‘Irāq Shām, but it's also an insult.
"Democratic Korps (of those who are) Beneficently Anti-Government"
If there was ever a 911 call that warranted SWAT turning out with an armoured truck this is it, but maybe it'd be a good idea to get it resprayed? And spring for some blue jumpsuits instead of Army surplus woodland camo?
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
If there was ever a 911 call that warranted SWAT turning out with an armoured truck this is it, but maybe it'd be a good idea to get it resprayed? And spring for some blue jumpsuits instead of Army surplus woodland camo?
Just a bit of a nitpick, that's not a military armoured truck. That's a Lenco Bearcat, a purpose built SWAT vehicle. Also, pretty sure that's San Bernardino County SWAT. It's a pretty open, rugged county, so a OD green Bearcat is probably a bit more useful than something all black. Probably blends a little better when out in the boonies going after drug labs and other hard targets. And same sort of reason for the camo, instead of blue jumpsuits. If you're in a city, you're not trying to be inconspicous, so camo standing out doesn't matter. But if you're out in the ass end of southern california, again, blends better into the foliage and woods.
Also, hearing that two suspected shooters are dead, a male and female.
Even if we hear word on motive, I'd advise waiting a day or so to actually pay attention to it, we're gonna hear at least a half dozen different narratives on why before we actually get a solid answer.
Maybe I'm guilty of stereotyping a bit here, but it seems to me that just the fact that one of the shooters was female makes this rather atypical for a mass shooting. As does the presence of multiple shooters.
The Romulan Republic wrote:Maybe I'm guilty of stereotyping a bit here, but it seems to me that just the fact that one of the shooters was female makes this rather atypical for a mass shooting. As does the presence of multiple shooters.
Yeah ... although I heard one report over the radio that suggests that the county had some idea who at least one of the shooters was, before the cops caught up with them. The most interesting thing I heard in that report was an eyewitness account that someone left the holiday gathering "angry" shortly before the shooting started.
Well, doesn't that just set the bloody tin lid on it.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
A possible name for one of the suspects, from what I saw.
It certainly raises the odds of it being jihadist terrorism, but it is hardly confirmation of it. Even if this guy was definitely one of the shooters and definitely a Muslim, it wouldn't be. Because just as non-Muslims can murder people for reasons that have nothing to do with faith, so too can Muslims.
Edit: And I pray to God its not a Jihadi because we saw how outright fascistic a lot of America got over the shootings in Paris, and that, while certainly on a larger scale, was in another country. A Jihadi mass shooting here now is all the pretext a lot of scumbags need to do truly evil things of their own, and then some.
I'll add that I've seen pretty much jack about a possible jihadist connection anywhere else, so while I won't rule it out, I'm taking it with a big grain of salt.
I don't think it really matters at this point if he was a jihadist, a guy with a grudge against his employers and/or the government department renting out their function room, or somewhere in between. (Does it count as Islamic terrorism if you get called a sand n****r behind your back once too often and settle the score with the guy who said it and everyone who couldn't be arsed to call them on their shit?) A guy with a vaguely Muslim-sounding name is implemented in a spree killing, that was all it was ever going to take.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
Suspect ID'd in San Bernardino Massacre as Syed Farook
Syed Farook is one of three suspected gunmen who attacked a center for the disabled, killing 14 and injuring more on Wednesday.
CORONA, CALIFORNIA — Law enforcement officials have identified Syed Farook as one of the suspected shooters who attacked a center for the disabled in San Bernardino, California, according to NBC News. The Daily Beast has learned that the police have just executed a search warrant at a Redlands, California address—an address that belongs to Farook’s family.
Police pursued a car leaving from the Redlands address, Chief Jarrod Baraugan said at a Wednesday evening press conference. A male and female suspect were inside the car, and both of them have been killed. Both of the suspects were armed with assault rifles and handguns, Baraugan said. Police have apprehended a third man, but have not identified his relation to the attacks yet.
An eyewitness at the Inland Regional Center, where gunmen killed 14 and wounded at least 18 more, told police he saw a man leaving a meeting of county employees this morning, looking nervous. Poice officers named Syed Farook as that man in their radio communications. At approximately 11 a.m., at least two people entered the center and opened fire.
Farook, who also went by his middle name, Raheel, was a business taxes representative for the California State Board of Equalization, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is a 2003 graduate La Sierra High School, and most recently studied finance at California State University Fullerton until 2013.
Records show Farook bought a two bedroom Corona home in March 2014. Farouk’s social media profile shows he is married and has at least one young child. His wife did not return messages left on Wednesday.
Farook lived at a home with his wife and children in Corona, California. The Daily Beast knocked on the home's door and was met by a man who said, “My name is Farook.” When asked if he knew Sayed, the man said, “Of course I know him but I have nothing to say.” When asked about Syed being named as a suspect, he said, “I have nothing to say.”
Behind Farook, was a brightly lit home with low-slung sectional couches and boxes for appliances. The smell of basmati rice cooking came wafting through the door. A set of womens sandals sat outside of the security door.
Five minutes after he answered the door, Farook got into a white car and drove away, answering questions again with, “I have nothing to say.”
The Daily Beast contacted Farooq's sister, Saira Khan, by phone on Wednesday shortly after the shooting. She said the media was jumping to conclusions on identifying the suspect and said that her brother was at work. Khan said she would try to get in touch with her brother and pass along his contact information.
Доверяй, но проверяй
"Ugh. I hate agreeing with Zontargs." -- Alyrium Denryle
"What you are is abject human trash who is very good at dodging actual rule violations while still being human trash." -- Alyrium Denryle iustitia socialis delenda est
