Report: 3 Men Rushed San Bernardino Shooter

Fast, heroic police response praised
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 10, 2016 7:16 AM CDT
Report: 3 Men Rushed San Bernardino Shooter
Police tape is seen outside the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Dec. 7, 2015.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A new report on last year's San Bernardino shooting details how the horror and chaos of the massacre was met with "the very best that our country has to offer," US Attorney Eileen Decker says. The report from the Department of Justice and the Police Foundation group has new details of the attack, including how three men tried to rush one of the shooters, the AP reports. The three county employees were shot and the report doesn't say they whether they survived, though Decker's statement referred to people who "heroically sacrificed themselves in an attempt to stop the shooting." The 162-page report, which can be seen in full here, praises the police response to the massacre carried out by husband-and-wife ISIS supporters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.

The report says the rapid response saved lives, the San Bernardino Sun reports. Investigators spoke to more than 200 witnesses and first responders, including one of the first police officers to arrive at the scene, who described it as "the worst thing imaginable." "Some people were quiet, hiding, others were screaming or dying, grabbing at your legs because they wanted us to get them out, but our job at the moment was to keep going," he said. The report describes how a rookie cop was the first to identify Farook, a county employee, as a suspect. The information led to a confrontation in which Farook and Malik exchanged fire with dozens of officers. The report says the officers fired 440 rounds, killing the couple within minutes. The couple fired 81 rounds, injuring two officers. (More San Bernardino shooting stories.)

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