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How Many Shooters In The San Bernardino Attack?

by Alicia Lu

Update: On Wednesday, Dec. 2, a shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, left 14 people dead and 21 wounded. Hours after the attack, police pursued information that led to a chase of a dark SUV, which was later determined to be a rental car. A shootout between police and the suspects left both suspects dead. The suspects were identified as Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, who were husband and wife.

According to SBPD Chief Jarrod Burguan, the four guns used in the shooting were purchased legally. The suspects were found to have 1,600 rounds of ammunition with them, and at a home the suspects were renting in Redlands, California, law enforcement officers found 4,500 rounds of ammunition and 12 pipe bombs. No official motive has been confirmed, though a source told The Los Angeles Times that investigators are considering a combined motive of “terrorism and workplace.”

Earlier: According to a statement by the San Bernardino Fire Department on Wednesday, a mass shooting in San Bernardino has killed or injured at least 20 victims. Though it's unclear at this time how many shooters are in the San Bernardino attack, according to early reports, there may be one to three suspects involved in the shooting. The incident occurred near a golf course and a regional center around the corner from a Planned Parenthood clinic. A representative at the nearby San Bernardino Public Golf Club told CNBC that the club was currently on lockdown.

Local station KABC has reported that the shooting took place at Inland Regional Center, a health facility for individuals with developmental disabilities, where people are now being evacuated. The station also reports that 12 people were believed to have been killed after what one eyewitness described as men in ski masks entered the building. A spokeswoman from the San Bernardino Police Department described the "very active scene" to BBC News, saying that police were still trying to secure the building and that the suspects were possibly heavily armed and wearing body armor.

Video footage of the area reveals people lying on the ground as police and the SWAT team swarm the scene, which was later joined by the FBI and ATF. Law enforcement authorities have not confirmed the conditions of the victims at this time. The shooting was first reported at just after 11 a.m. local time in San Bernardino, which is located in Southern California about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Despite the proximity to the Planned Parenthood, a representative told CNBC that the attack did not occur on their premises. Last Friday, a lone gunman entered a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs and opened fire, killing three people and wounding several others. Robert Lewis Dear appeared in court on Monday for charges of first-degree murder, which could carry a minimum life in prison sentence or a maximum sentence of the death penalty.

Earlier this week, Dear's former wife, Barbara Micheau, told The New York Times that Dear had targeted Planned Parenthood in the past, putting glue in their locks in a Charleston clinic.