2015 San Bernardino shooting — December 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California
The deadliest U.S. terrorist attack since 9/11 and deadliest mass shooting since Sandy Hook, carried out by radicalized homegrown extremists in California.
Key Facts
- Date
- December 2, 2015
- Killed
- 14 people
- Seriously injured
- 22 people
- Target
- San Bernardino County Dept. of Public Health event
- Perpetrators
- Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik
- Perpetrators' fate
- Killed by police in shootout ~4 hours after attack
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple in Redlands, California, had radicalized over several years, consuming extremist material online and privately expressing commitment to jihadism and martyrdom. The FBI determined they were homegrown violent extremists inspired by foreign terrorist groups, though not directed by any cell or network. They had stockpiled weapons, ammunition, and bomb-making equipment at home.
On December 2, 2015, Farook and Malik attacked a San Bernardino County Department of Public Health training event and Christmas party of roughly 80 employees at the Inland Regional Center, killing 14 people and seriously injuring 22. The attack combined a mass shooting with an attempted bombing. The couple fled the scene in a rented Ford Expedition SUV before being pursued and killed in a police shootout approximately four hours later.
The attack was the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012 and the deadliest domestic terrorist attack since September 11, 2001, until surpassed by the Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016. Associate Enrique Marquez Jr. was arrested and pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism. Three others pleaded guilty to immigration fraud. The attack intensified national debates on terrorism, gun control, and domestic radicalization.