San Bernardino Shooters Were Angry About a Christmas Tree

Tashfeen Malik didn't want husband at a Christmas party: cops
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 1, 2016 12:16 PM CST
San Bernardino Shooters Were Angry About a Christmas Tree
Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik in 2014.   (U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP, File)

A mandatory meeting decked out with a Christmas tree and other holiday decorations may have sparked last year's deadly shooting at an office building in San Bernardino, Calif., reports ABC News. Police say that Syed Farook's wife, Tashfeen Malik, was that upset her husband had to attend, based on emails between the two. She "didn't think that a Muslim should have to participate in a non-Muslim holiday or event," says San Bernardino police chief Jarrod Burguan. Not long after Farook posed for a photo with others in front of the tree, he and his wife went on a shooting spree that left 14 people dead.

Though authorities have gathered more than 500 pieces of evidence, per the Los Angeles Times, the message "is one over the very, very few pieces of potential evidence" that offers a clue as to why Farook and Malik opened fire on the meeting before being killed by police, Burguan says. Another nugget: Cops think the pair circled the neighborhood after the shooting in their vehicle in an unsuccessful attempt to detonate bombs via remote control. The details were revealed on ABC's Nightline on Wednesday. (Farook and Malik left behind a 6-month-old child, now in a sad limbo.)

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