An FBI Affidavit was released yesterday which provides details into the relationship between Syed Rizwan Farook and his next door neighbor and friend of many years, Enrique Marquez Jr., who provided both of the Assault Rifles used in the San Bernardino killings. Marquez moved next door to Farook in Riverside, CA in 2005, and within a few years Farook convinced Marquez Jr. to convert to a radical Islamic ideology. Marquez Jr. would frequently visit Farook’s Mosque to pray and more often would pray at Farook’s home. By 2011, Marquez begins spending most of his time at Farook’s home, where he watches videos involving radical Islamic content and reads Inspire magazine, an official publication of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
According to the documents, Marquez and Farook began planning attacks in Southern California, which called for the purchase of assault weapons. Marquez told investigators that around late 2011 he and Farook planned to bomb a crowded cafeteria at a local community college, or mow down motorists with gunfire on a gridlocked Southern California freeway, with both plots intended to maximize casualties. FBI agents said that Marquez even drew them a diagram on a Riverside Community College campus map where they intended to carry out an attack, since both Men attended the college and thus knew where the crowds were and the escape routes. Marquez bought a pair of AR-15 rifles from a sporting goods store that were planned to be used in these attacks, but would eventually wind up being the weapons that Farook and his wife used in San Bernardino. The purchases became illegal because Marquez signed documents saying the guns were only for the personal use of Marquez and his immediate family. It was decided that Marquez be the one to buy the guns because his appearance was less likely to draw suspicion than Farook, whose parents were born in Pakistan.
In the course of the investigation, Marquez disclosed that he was paid $200 monthly to enter into a “sham” marriage with the Russian sister of one of Farook’s in-laws to allow her to stay in the U.S. The woman he married on Nov 29, 2014, is the sister of Farook’s brother’s wife. Marquez now faces an immigration fraud charge for the marriage, in addition to the unlawful firearms, and terror plotting charges. Most of the transcript from the 911 call made by Marquez after the San Bernardino shootings took place is in the court records. Marquez says on the call that he gave the guns to his neighbor for the purpose of “storage” and also that he was contemplating suicide.
