California terrorists got a $28k payment two weeks before attack - suspicious transfer revealed as FBI says couple had been radicalized for 'some time' and had rigged building to blow after massacre 

  • Pipe bombs placed by Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were supposed to detonate when first responders arrived on scene
  • But the bombs at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, never detonated
  • FBI says Farook and Malik were radicalized and had been 'for some time'
  • Investigators are also looking into a $28,000 deposit made into Syed Farook’s bank account two weeks before the shooting
  • Farook visited Riverside Magnum Shooting Range twice in the days before the San Bernardino shooting, and Malik joined him at least once  
  • See more of the latest on the terrorists behind the California attacks 

Terror investigators have found a suspicious $28,000 deposit was made into the bank account of the San Bernardino gunman, just two weeks before he and his wife gunned down 14 and injured 21. 

The latest finding raises the chilling possibility that Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik had outside help in their attack on the Inland Regional Center. 

It comes as the FBI revealed the terror couple had been radicalized for 'some time' since they settled into married life in America in July 2014.

It has also emerged that they were targeting first responders with the pipe bombs they planted in the center and hoped to kill the brave men and women who rushed to the scene of the shootings. 

Thankfully the bombs failed to detonate either due to a remote control malfunction or as a result of the buildings overhead emergency sprinklers.

This image shows San Bernardino shooters Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook going through customs as O'Hare Airport in Chicago in July 2014 upon their arrival from Saudi Arabia

A bag stuffed with homemade pipe bombs was recovered from Malik and Farook's home after Wednesday's attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday

A bag stuffed with homemade pipe bombs was recovered from Malik and Farook's home after Wednesday's attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday

'This was meant to kill more, but also scare other future responders to attacks,’ a source with inside knowledge of the investigation told Fox News of the bombs. ‘This was meant to get into the minds of medics and officers who are arriving first on scene.’

News of the bombs was revealed after David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles office, announced on Monday that Farook and Malik were radicalized and had been 'for some time'. He added the bureau doesn't know when or how they were radicalized.

It was also revealed on Monday that a $28,000 deposit was made into Farook’s bank account on or around November 18 from WebBank.com. 

Investigators are now looking into whether the transaction was a loan. Farook earned $53,000 a year as an environmental health inspector for San Bernardino County.

WebBank.com, a Utah-based company, describes itself on its website as ‘ a leading provider of national consumer and commercial private-label and bank card financing programs’ on a nationwide basis.

Farook converted $10,000 of the $28,000 to cash on or about November 20, and withdrew the money from a Union Bank in San Bernardino.

In the days leading up to the massacre, at least three transfers of $5,000 appeared to go to Farook’s mother.

An AR-15 assault rifle at Riverside Magnum Shooting Range earlier this year. Farook is said to have visited the range 'with frequency'

An AR-15 assault rifle at Riverside Magnum Shooting Range earlier this year. Farook is said to have visited the range 'with frequency'

Syed Rizwan Farook
Tashfeen Malik

Investigators said that both Farook, (left) and his wife Tashfeen Malik (right) practiced 'dry-firing' without bullets in a backyard

Range owner Peter Lee (pictured) said that Farook probably visited the establishment frequently

Range owner Peter Lee (pictured) said that Farook probably visited the establishment frequently

Farook reportedly spent hours at the shooting range (pictured) during one session, and used both a AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun

Farook reportedly spent hours at the shooting range (pictured) during one session, and used both a AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun

The loan and cash withdrawal were described as ‘significant evidence of pre-meditation’, a source told Fox News, which further undercuts the possibility of the shooting stemming from a disagreement at a work Christmas party.

Investigators are also reportedly looking into whether the $10,000 cash withdrawal was used to reimburse Enrique Marquez Jr, a security guard friend of Farook’s who is the man who bought the two semi-automatic rifles used in the attack.

The shooters themselves are thought to have bought handguns that were also used.

Marquez checked himself into a mental hospital after the killings, and FBI agents raided his home on Sunday. He is now reportedly answering investigators’ questions.

‘Right now our major concern at the FBI, the ATF, and the JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) is determining how those firearms, the rifles in particular, got from Marquez to Farook and to Malik,’ assistant special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, John D’Angelo, said on Monday.

The weapons were all purchased legally in California between 2007 and 2012.

FBI agents are also looking into evidence of pre-meditation with an SUV rental charge that was processing on Farook’s account on November 30, two days before the shooting.

It has been revealed that the gunmen practiced shooting at a local firing range before Wednesday’s massacre, investigators said.

Farook, 28, went to Riverside Magnum Shooting Range, 25 miles from his home in Redlands, California, twice in the days before carrying out the terrorist attack with his wife Malik.

David Bowdich (center), assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles office, said the bureau now believes both Farook and Malik were radicalized and had been 'for some time'

David Bowdich (center), assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles office, said the bureau now believes both Farook and Malik were radicalized and had been 'for some time'

The couple were armed with a .223-caliber DPMS Model A15 rifle, a Smith and Wesson M&P15 rifle as well as Llama handgun and a Smith and Wesson handgun (pictured)

The couple were armed with a .223-caliber DPMS Model A15 rifle, a Smith and Wesson M&P15 rifle as well as Llama handgun and a Smith and Wesson handgun (pictured)

Thousands of rounds of ammunition were discovered in the attackers' apartment, as well as in the car where they died in a shootout with police 

Thousands of rounds of ammunition were discovered in the attackers' apartment, as well as in the car where they died in a shootout with police 

Farook made visits to the Riverside range and fired both and AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun on the Sunday and Monday before the massacre, spending several hours there during one session.

His wife joined him on at least one of those occasions, Bowdich said on Monday.

TIMELINE OF TERROR MARRIAGE

Tashfeen Malik entered the US for the first time on July 27, 2014, on a K-1 or 'fiance' visa. The visa program allows foreign residents intending to marry American citizens to live with them in the US for up to 90 days prior to the wedding. 

Before entering the country, the partner has to undergo several rounds of counter-terrorism screening and a medical exam. Malik would have also had to undergo a one-on-one interview with an embassy official in her home country of Pakistan. 

However, already questions are swirling about how the checklist works. For example, Fox News reported that Malik cited an incorrect home address in Pakistan on her visa application and it wasn't picked up by the authorities. 

The couple reportedly met on a Muslim dating website sometime in 2013. They came face-to-face for the first time in Saudi Arabia in July 2014 when Farook took a two-week vacation to meet his bride-to-be and her family.   

A new photograph shows the new couple arriving in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on the evening of July 27, 2014. 

The pair were reportedly married in Riverside, California, in August 2014. Farook petitioned to have his wife's immigration status changed to Legal Permanent Resident in September.

It is likely the couple also had a religious ceremony in Saudi Arabia before Malik moved to the US, although this hasn't been confirmed. 

Bowdich said in an afternoon press conference on Monday that both Malik and Farook had been to ranges before the attack.

Investigators also told Fox News that the couple were ‘dry-firing’ in another Southern California home's backyard before the attack, meaning that they were practicing pulling the trigger but had no bullets in the chamber.

‘The intent is to train the mind to kill,’ a source told Fox of the preparations.

The shooting range’s owner Peter Lee said that he had been on a cruise in the lead-up to the shootings, but that the FBI contacted him on Wednesday night and later took his video surveillance and financial statements.

He told Hoy Los Angeles that Farook probably visited his shooting range ‘with frequency’.

Riverside Magnum offers unlimited time in a shooting lane for $15, and has guidelines including no rapid firing inside the range.

It also offers gun rentals, though Farook brought his own guns with him.

Modified AR-15s were the guns used by the attacker and his wife during the massacre at Inland Regional Center

Increased scrutiny has focused on how Farook and Malik acquired their guns, ammo and stockpile of homemade pipe bombs.

Receipts for two online gun stores, Budsgunshop.com and Cheaper than Dirt, were found in their home.

More than 4,500 rounds of ammunition and a dozen pipe bombs were found in Farook and Malik’s home, leading some to believe they planned on more attacks.

Investigators also found 19 pipes in the couple's home that could be turned into bombs with all the right components.

An additional 1,600 rounds of ammunition were found in the rental car where the couple were killed.

In the wake of the attack, Syed Farook's 66-year-old father, also named Syed Farook, has been placed on a federal watch list.

Pictures of the victims of Wednesday's mass shooting are displayed during a candlelight vigil in downtown San Bernardino on Monday

Pictures of the victims of Wednesday's mass shooting are displayed during a candlelight vigil in downtown San Bernardino on Monday

People hold candles during a vigil for the 14 victims who were shot dead by Farook and Malik in San Bernardino

People hold candles during a vigil for the 14 victims who were shot dead by Farook and Malik in San Bernardino

People gather around a makeshift memorial outside the Inland Regional Center during a vigil on Monday

People gather around a makeshift memorial outside the Inland Regional Center during a vigil on Monday

People light one another's candels during a vigil held on Monday night in San Bernardino following last week's shooting

People light one another's candels during a vigil held on Monday night in San Bernardino following last week's shooting

An official familiar with the FBI investigation told ABC News that the elder Mr Farook has made multiple lengthy trips to Pakistan, including this and last year.

In an interview with an Italian newspaper over the weekend, the elder Syed Farook reportedly said that his son was fascinated with ISIS and hated the State of Israel.

Other family members have since downplayed Ms Farook's remarks, saying he is 'not stable ' and 'not handling this well’. The father himself later said he did not recall talking to the newspaper.

The FBI is also investigating exactly how much Farook’s mother knew about the impending attack.

Rafia Sultana Farook, 62, lived in the same home in Redlands, California, as her son and his wife built a dozen pipe bombs and stored 6,000 rounds of ammunition.

In a press conference on Friday, attorneys David Chesley and Mohammed Abuershaid, who represent the Farook family, said that Rafia had been extensively questioned by the FBI following the shooting and there was no evidence she had prior knowledge of the attack.

An image emerged on Monday showing Farook and Malik as newlyweds entering the United States upon their arrival from Saudi Arabia last year - as the FBI revealed that both shooters were radicalized.

The image, first obtained by ABC News Monday morning, was apparently taken as Syed Farook and his bride, Tashfeen Malik, were going through customs in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on the evening of July 27, 2014. It marks the first time that the couple are seen posing together.

The photograph depicts Malik, 29, dressed in a black hijab on her head and what appears to be a matching dress, staring stone-faced straight into the camera in her first moments on US soil.

Malik is seen here in a photo ID from Bahauddin Zakaria University in Multan, Pakistan, where she had studied pharmacy 

Malik is seen here in a photo ID from Bahauddin Zakaria University in Multan, Pakistan, where she had studied pharmacy 

The Pakistan identification card of Tashfeen Malik, who came to the US from Saudi Arabia on a K-1 visa

The Pakistan identification card of Tashfeen Malik, who came to the US from Saudi Arabia on a K-1 visa

Farook, 28, wearing a loose light-colored shirt and a skull cap, stands a few paces behind his partner.

The future San Bernardino gunman is sporting a beard but no mustache in the photo. The couple are wearing blank expressions in the photo.

The release of the first known photo of the terrorist duo comes as federal officials continue to delve into Malik and Farook's biographies in an effort to trace their path to radicalization, and learn what contacts the woman might have had with Islamic militants in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where she grew up.

The FBI is investigating how much Farook’s mother, Rafia Sultana Farook (left), 62, knew about the impending attack. Rafia lived in the same home in Redlands, California, as her son and his wife

The FBI is investigating how much Farook’s mother, Rafia Sultana Farook (left), 62, knew about the impending attack. Rafia lived in the same home in Redlands, California, as her son and his wife

Malik's estranged relatives in Pakistan have said she appeared to have abandoned the family's moderate Islam and become more radicalized in Saudi Arabia, where she moved as a toddler.

She returned to Pakistan and studied pharmacy at Bahauddin Zakaria University in Multan from 2007 to 2012.

While in Multan, she also attended a religious school, which Pakistani intelligence officials on Monday identified it as the Al-Huda International Seminary. The school is a women-only madrassa with a chain across Pakistan and branches in the U.S. and Canada, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Malik spent more than a year at Al-Huda, taking classes six days a week, the school's spokeswoman Farrukh Chaudhry told The Associated Press.

She enrolled in a two-year course to learn the Muslim holy book, Quran, its translation and interpretation but did not finish the course, Chaudhry added. Malik was a student there from April 17, 2013 until May 3, 2014, when she handed in her last paper in the first-year curriculum, the spokeswoman said.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said US authorities have no evidence that the shooters were part of a larger terrorism cell but were working with their counterparts overseas to gather information about their lives.

'We are trying to learn everything we can about both of these individuals,' Lynch said on NBC's Meet the Press. 'It will be a long process, it will be an exhaustive process.

Under scrutiny: Farook's 66-year-old father, a naturalized US citizen also named Syed Farook (pictured December 7 in Riverside), has been placed on a terror watch list 

Under scrutiny: Farook's 66-year-old father, a naturalized US citizen also named Syed Farook (pictured December 7 in Riverside), has been placed on a terror watch list 

Accused: Enrique Marquez, 29, allegedly purchased assault-style weapons for the San Bernardino shooters

Accused: Enrique Marquez, 29, allegedly purchased assault-style weapons for the San Bernardino shooters

'And we are trying to learn as much as we can about her life before they met, after they met and frankly, after she came here as well. What we are trying to focus on again is what motivated these two individuals.'

Officials have acknowledged they had no information about the couple before the killing other than routine matters related to Malik's immigration status in the United States.

Malik and Farook reportedly met on a Muslim dating website sometime in 2013.

Investigators with the FBI previously revealed that Malik entered the US on a K-1 fiancee visa and married Farook in California a month later. The wedding in Riverside may have been preceded by an earlier religious ceremony in Saudi Arabia, according to some officials.

In late May of this year, the newlyweds welcomed their baby daughter, who is now 6 months old and an orphan after Malik and Farook were killed in a gun battle with police just hours after the Wednesday morning shooting rampage.

Newly released dispatch tapes showed police had the name of one of the California shooting suspects as officers swarmed the scene of the massacre.

Recordings posted by The Press-Enterprise newspaper include an officer saying Syed Farook was a possible suspect. The officer says Farook seemed nervous when he left the building in San Bernardino before the attack and he matched the description of a shooter.

Also on Monday, ABC News released what is believed to be the first recording featuring the 28-year-old gunman's voice.

Farook, who was born in Illinois to Pakistani parents, is heard stating his full name, 'Syed Farook,' in a clear voice, without any audible accent, in a voicemail greeting.

People pay respects at a makeshift memorial in San Bernardino honoring the victims of Wednesday's attack

People pay respects at a makeshift memorial in San Bernardino honoring the victims of Wednesday's attack

Police respond to the scene of an active shooting at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on Wednesday

Police respond to the scene of an active shooting at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on Wednesday

FROM TERROR ATTACK TO POLITICAL BATTLEGROUND: WHERE OBAMA AND THE PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS STAND ON ISIS 

President Barack Obama used a rare live address to reassure Americans that the San Bernardino shootings were an isolated incident and to outline his plans in the ongoing battle against ISIS. 

The President firmly dismissed a change in strategy in the war against the extremists that would require combat troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria. 

And while the terrorist group is made up of 'thugs and killers' and is part of a 'cult of death', he again refused to call them 'radical Islamic terrorists'. 

'Muslim Americans are our friends and our neighbors are coworkers, our sports heroes. And yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country,' the president said, speaking from the Oval Office. 'We have to remember that.'

President Barack Obama used his Sunday night address on terrorism to assure the American people that the California shootings last week appear to be an isolated incident

President Barack Obama used his Sunday night address on terrorism to assure the American people that the California shootings last week appear to be an isolated incident

He also called on Congress to pass legislation barring individuals on the no-fly list from purchasing guns.

His position was backed by Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton, who is similarly refusing to refer to Islam when discussing ISIS. 

Speaking to George Stephanopoulos on This Week, she said the term 'radical Islamic terrorism' sounds like we are declaring war against a religion', instead of militants.

Stephanopoulos asked her: 'Isn’t it a mistake not to say it plain? That the violence is being pushed by radical elements in their faith?'

Clinton responded: 'Well that’s another thing. "Radical elements who use a dangerous and distorted view of Islam to promote their jihadist ambitions." I’m fine with that. I say it all the time.'

Pressed further, she added: 'The problem is, that sounds like we are declaring war against a religion. That to me is number one, wrong.

'It doesn't do justice to the vast number of Muslims in our country and around the world who are peaceful people.

'Number two, it helps to create this clash of civilizations that is actually a recruiting tool for ISIS and other radical jihadists who use this as a way of saying, "We are in a war against the West, you must join us."'

She has also called for an 'intensified air campaign' against ISIS overseas but spoke against troops on the ground which would 'make things worse, not better'. 

She also said she wants to 'dismantle the global infrastructure of terror' and particularly called on social media sites to help. 

She wants to 'toughen our defense at home' and also called for fiance visas to be reviewed in light of the San Bernardino attacks - and for those on the no-flight list to be denied the right to buy guns

The Democrat duo's standpoint has, however, been widely ridiculed by those on the other end of the political spectrum 

Donald Trump led the charge, live tweeting throughout Obama's address. 

'Obama refused to say (he just can't say it), that we are at WAR with RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS,' he wrote.

‘Could you imagine FDR going before Congress and saying, “We were attacked yesterday on Pearl Harbor. I really don’t want to talk about who did it, but you know, we just want to say that they were terrible people and they were thugs”?’ said Mike Huckabee (pictured) this morning

‘Could you imagine FDR going before Congress and saying, “We were attacked yesterday on Pearl Harbor. I really don’t want to talk about who did it, but you know, we just want to say that they were terrible people and they were thugs”?’ said Mike Huckabee (pictured) this morning

He subsequently reposted another tweet by a supporter, adding: '[Obama] will never say it, therefore he will never have a solution!'

Mike Huckabee went one step further. 

‘Could you imagine FDR going before Congress and saying, 'We were attacked yesterday on Pearl Harbor. I really don’t want to talk about who did it, but you know, we just want to say that they were terrible people and they were thugs,' the former governor of Arkansas told Fox and Friends. 

‘Well who was it, Mr. President? Well, we don’t want to get into it, because I don’t want you to have any bad feelings toward the Japanese.' 

Ted Cruz also invoked Pearl Harbor in his response to Obama’s address and proclaimed that afterward ‘FDR did not give a partisan speech, rather he called on Americans to unite and 'win through to absolute victory'.

‘If I am elected President, I will direct the Department of Defense to destroy ISIS. And I will shut down the broken immigration system that is letting jihadists into our country,’ the Texas senator said.

And he charged, ‘Nothing President Obama said tonight will assist in either case.’ 

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now