[16][17][18] Farook grew up in Riverside, California, and attended La Sierra High School, graduating in 2004, one year early.

[19][20] He attended California State University, San Bernardino, and received a bachelor's degree in environmental health in either 2009 or 2010.

[22] Farook worked as a food inspector for the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health for five years before the shooting.

[26] According to family members and coworkers, Farook was a devout Sunni Muslim, and traveled to Saudi Arabia several times, including to complete the hajj in 2013.

[29] The Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that Farook's father said that his son "shared the ideology of Al Baghdadi to create an Islamic state" and that he was fixated with Israel.

[34] Malik returned to Pakistan to study pharmacology at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, beginning the program in 2007 and graduating in 2012.

[39] According to school records, Malik enrolled in an eighteen-month Quranic studies course with Al-Huda on April 17, 2013, and left on May 3, 2014, telling administrators that she was leaving to get married.

"[36] Faiza Mushtaq, a Pakistani scholar that studied the organization, said that "these Al-Huda classes are teaching these urban, educated, upper-middle-class women a very conservative interpretation of Islam that makes them very judgmental about others around them."

According to the Los Angeles Times, Al-Huda seminaries promote anti-Western views and hard-line practices in a fashion that "could encourage some adherents to lash out against non-believers.

"[40] The New York Times reported that the institute "teaches a strict literalist interpretation of the Quran, although it does not advocate violent jihad.

"[41] An Al-Huda administrator from the head office in Islamabad said that terrorism "is against the teachings of Islam" and that the school's curriculum did not endorse violence.

[40] According to one of Farook's coworkers, Malik and her husband married about a month after he traveled to Saudi Arabia in early 2014; the two had met over the Internet.

[49][50] Malik's estranged relatives say that she had left the moderate Islam of her family and had become radicalized while living in Saudi Arabia.

[41] Comey subsequently clarified that the remarks were "direct private messages" that were not publicly accessible and that "So far, in this investigation, we have found no evidence of posting on social media.

"[53] Comey said that the FBI's investigation had revealed that Farook and Malik were "consuming poison on the Internet" and both had become radicalized "before they started courting or dating each other online" and "before the emergence of ISIL.

[58] Comey has said that although the investigation has shown that Farook and Malik were radicalized and possibly inspired by foreign terrorist organizations, there is no indication that the couple were directed by such a group or part of a broader cell or network.

The devices were described as pipe bombs constructed with Christmas lights and tied together, combined with a remote-controlled car that was switched on.

[78] An examination of digital equipment recovered from their home suggested that the couple was in the final planning stages of a much larger attack.

[86][88] Farook arrived at the departmental event at about 8:30 a.m. and left midway through it at around 10:30 a.m., leaving a backpack containing explosives atop a table.

[88][92][108] When officers responded to Farook and Malik's Redlands home, both fled in a sports utility vehicle (SUV), resulting in a police pursuit.

[8][9][10] Farook died from 26 gunshot wounds, sustained mostly in the legs and including one in the chin where the bullet fragmented into his neck.

[75] After Farook's and Malik's corpses were released by law enforcement, local Islamic cemeteries refused to accept the remains.

During the police investigation into the attack, The New York Times reported that this language indicated "a less direct connection" between the shooters and the terrorist group.

The FBI responded by successfully applying to a United States magistrate judge to issue a court order under the All Writs Act of 1789, mandating Apple to create and provide the requested software.

[121] In the fall of 2020 in response to a Denver radio program's public records request the department released the autopsies for Farook and Malik.

"[18][123][124] In the six-page lawsuit, the life insurance company claimed that Farook's mother was aware of her son's intentions to carry out the attack, and reasoned that she should not be entitled to the benefits as a result.

[127][128] In October 2020, Sayeed Farook's confidant, Enrique Marquez Jr., received a 20-year federal prison term for helping acquire the semi-automatic rifles.