San Bernardino attacker practiced at shooting range like ‘normal guy’

LOS ANGELES – One of the San Bernardino attackers practiced firing a military-style weapon at a Riverside County gun range, according to an employee who described him as a “normal guy.”

John Galletta, a firearms instructor at Riverside Magnum Range, said shooter Syed Rizwan Farook had practiced there before, but couldn’t comment on when or how frequently he stopped by.

Galletta said Farook’s wife, Tashfeen Malik, had never been there.

As for Farook, a co-worker at the range described him as “a normal guy,” Galletta said.

The company has turned over surveillance footage and sign-in logs to the FBI, he said.

Galletta said Farook practiced with an AR-15 and that he brought his own weapon. It wasn’t clear if that is the only type of weapon he practiced with, he said.

The FBI said Monday that the San Bernardino shooters had been radicalized “for quite some time,” but investigators are still trying to determine whether they had links to foreign terror organizations.

Officials also said Farook and Malik had gone to gun ranges in the Los Angeles area in the days before Wednesday’s massacre, in which 14 people were killed and 21 were injured.

Federal investigators did not know how the couple had become radicalized, said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

“Remember, oftentimes it’s on the Internet,” he cautioned.

John D’Angelo of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives added that three of the guns recovered from the couple’s shootout with police after their attack and from the couple’s home were purchased by Farook between 2007 and 2012. The other two weapons were purchased by Farook’s friend Enrique Marquez, of Riverside.

Marquez entered a mental hospital after the attacks, according to two law enforcement sources.

Federal authorities interviewed Marquez over the weekend after discovering that he had given the assailants two semi-automatic weapons. A source said there was no indication at this time that Marquez had any knowledge of the plot.

A law enforcement source said the weapons were purchased at least three years ago and that there is no paperwork of them being transferred to Farook.