Radicalized, San Bernardino shooters practiced just days before rampage

Investigators say the two suspects in the San Bernardino shooting had been radicalized for some time, and took target practice just days before their rampage.

Both Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were killed in a shootout with police, a few hours after shooting dead 14 people in the southern California city.

Malik was born in Pakistan but grew up in Saudi Arabia, where her father moved for work in the 1980s. She went to college back in Pakistan, completing a five-year course and qualifying as a pharmacist. She then married Farook and moved to the United States.

Declan Walsh of the New York Times has been using his experience in Pakistan to dig into Malik’s background.

Malik was "visibly devout," according to the college professors that Walsh spoke with. In fact, none of them knew what she looked like as her face was always covered with the niqab. But she was not seen as a threat. “Absolutely not,” says Walsh. “Her teachers say that she was a student who was obviously religious but otherwise was pretty unremarkable. She was very applied in her studies and did well in her class.”

Her apparent piety even stood out in this relatively conservative part of Pakistan.

Walsh also spoke with Malik’s extended family. Her father was estranged from the rest of the family, initially over a property dispute, and then because he adopted the stricter Saudi style of Islam.  Malik’s uncles told the Times they were appalled at her actions.

You can see Walsh’s full story here.