San Bernardino Shooters’ SUV With Utah Licence Plates Was Rented

Mass Shooting Reported In San Bernardino
Screen Shot: KTLA/Los Angeles

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., Dec. 3 (Gephardt Daily) ─ San Bernadino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan on Thursday revealed that the suspects in the city’s Wednesday mass shooting had rented the SUV they were driving.

“That is why it had Utah plates,” he said at a news conference. The black SUV was rented in or near San Bernadino a few days earlier, he said. Vehicles that are rented on a one-way basis often end up in different states than those in which they are registered.

San Bernardino safety officials had been working with Utah’s Department of Public Safety to determine if the fact that the vehicle had Utah license plates was significant to the the investigation.

Sgt. Todd Royce, public information officer for the Utah Department of Public Safety, said Wednesday night that, “Investigators at the State Information Analysis Center (SIAC) are actively assisting the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office in providing any information regarding any connection to Utah.”

SIAC was formed in Utah in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. It is officially described on the DPS website as “a public-safety partnership designed to collect, analyze, and disseminate intelligence in order to protect Utahns.”

Utah’s SIAC is part of a nationwide network of intelligence sharing fusion centers, one of 78 nationwide.

The suspects, identified Wednesday night as Syed Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, reportedly killed 14 people. At the news conference, Burguan updated the number of injured to 20. Farook and Malik died in the rental SUV during a gun battle with police.

Burguan also revealed that the suspects had at their home more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition, 12 pipe bombs and hundreds of tools that could be used to make improvised explosive devices.

San Bernardino police and the FBI now say the attack was planned, but they still don’t know if the plan was initiated primarily as a terroristic act or as the act of disgruntled employee. Farook, a 5-year-employee of San Bernardino’s Department of Health, was in attendance at the party before he argued with another guest and left, only to return with his wife and the firearms.

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