On Wednesday morning, California health inspector and US citizen Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his Saudi wife of two years, Tashfeen Malik, 27, dropped off their six-month-old baby with Farook's mother, saying they were going to a doctor's appointment.
By noon, according to police, the couple had donned assault clothing, armed themselves with rifles and stormed a holiday party attended by San Bernardino County employees, killing 14 people and wounding 17 others. According to some reports, the duo had GoPro cameras strapped to their body armor during the shooting.
Before sunset, after a massive manhunt and a violent shootout with police on a residential street, they were both dead, leaving a grieving community with few clues to puzzle out the motive for the carnage.
Those who knew Farook, among them his colleagues at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department, described him as a devout Muslim but not someone who often talked about religion.
'He never struck me as a fanatic, he never struck me as suspicious,' said Griselda Reisinger, a former colleague.
Co-worker Patrick Baccari, who shared a cubicle with Farook, told the Los Angeles Times he and his young family appeared to be 'living the American dream.'
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Syed Rizwan Farook (pictured), 28, who is U.S.-born, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, were killed in a gun battle with police after the mass shooting at a government holiday party held at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino
A broken window and crushed fence is seen at a home in Redlands, California, linked to the San Bernardino shooting suspects Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife
Pre-dawn raid: FBI agents search outside a home in Redlands, California, connected to Farook and Malik
The suspects' bullet-ridden black SUV is seen in a street in Redlands, California, early Thursday morning as police continue their investigation
FBI and police investigator are seen around the vehicle surrounded by yellow evidence tags on the ground
Officers are seen gathering evidence around the shot-up SUV belonging to the shooters
Grisly aftermath: An assault rifle is seen resting on the sidewalk near a large blood stain and a pair of black sneakers in Redlands
Local news footage on Wednesday evening showed one of the dead attackers outside the shot-out SUV. The suspect was killed in a police chase while still inside the vehicle, then moved on the street
In the pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning, a search team comprised of police and federal agents combed the residence in Redlands, California, associated with Farook and his wife. A black sedan parked outside was also searched.
The home is where officers initially saw a vehicle matching the description of the suspects' SUV in the hours before the final gun battle that killed them. A bomb squad on Wednesday swept the building with robots.
Public records show it is a possible residence of a family member of Farook.
Earlier in the day, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a press conference the Justice Department will be offering ‘any and all assistance necessary’ as the investigation into the California mass shooting continues.
Lynch was speaking at an event about criminal justice at the White House. She called Wednesday’s deadly massacre ‘unspeakable.’
Lynch says the government doesn't know a lot yet about the incident. But she says the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and other federal authorities have been dispatched.
The attorney general said that whatever the results of the investigation, there's no place for this type of violence in the US.
This image appears to show a body being pulled from the vehicle after the attackers had been killed
The second attacker, who is believed to have tried to run from the SUV, can be seen in a pool of blood in the bottom-right ot this image, taken from local news footage
A differently-angled aerial shot of the scene shows the second attacker on the other side of the street from the SUV, which has had its passenger-side front and back windows shot out
The shooters began their massacre at the Inland Regional Center (top left) before fleeing. Police later traced them to a home in Redlands (bottom right), where a chase began which ended on San Bernardino Avenue (top center), where the two were shot dead
Heavily-armed officers are seen closing in on the SUV which the two killers drove on a deadly chase through San Bernardino
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