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Where Did The San Bernardino Shooting Happen?
Update: Late Wednesday evening, police confirmed 28-year-old Syed Rizwan Farook and 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik were the two suspects killed by police in connection to a mass shooting at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. After fleeing the scene of the shooting, Farook and Malik’s SUV was tracked to nearby Redlands, California, where they died in a shootout with police. A third person who fled the site of the police gunfight was detained, though authorities said they did not believe he was directly involved in the shooting that left at least 14 people dead and 17 injured. As of early Thursday morning, officials have not disclosed a motive for the attack. Terrorism has not been ruled out.
Earlier: An active shooting situation in San Bernardino, California, unfolded Wednesday afternoon, as one to three suspects, according to the police, reportedly killed 14 people and injured 14. There's no concrete information about the shooters' identities or their motivations just yet, but plenty of people are wondering about the location they reportedly ended up in — what is the Inland Regional Center?
The shooting occurred at the Inland Regional Center, which cares for people with developmental disabilities. Here’s how it described itself on its Facebook page:
Inland Regional Center was built on the foundation of three core values – independence, inclusion, and empowerment. In following these core values, we hope to help provide each individual with a service system that helps identify and eliminate barriers for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families so they can closely live a typical lifestyle.
Today, 40 years later, we continue to stand by the promise to work on a personal, one-on-one basis with people with developmental disabilities to make their lives better as they define it.
As the needs of our consumers change throughout the years, Inland Regional Center continues to initiate new programs, make technical changes, implement legislative changes made to the Lanterman Act, and evaluate our services to identify how we can better serve our constituents.
According to the page, the Inland Regional Center boasts "nearly 670" staff members, and serves 30,200 people across the counties of San Bernardino and Riverside. The state-run facility has a mission to serve people with developmental disabilities and their families "by working to include them in the everyday routines and life rhythms of the community and by facilitating needed supports for them," its Facebook says.
The IRC had just held a holiday party the day before, sharing happy video and photos that now seem heartbreaking in the wake of this tragedy.
Image: Google Maps