US shooting suspect had Pakistan passport: Officials

Washington: One of the key suspects of the California mass shooting received her US fiance visa in Islamabad after which she travelled to the US and got married, the US State Department has said.

“She (Tashfeen Malik) got the visa in Pakistan. I’m sure she got the visa in Pakistan,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news conference yesterday.

Tashfeen Malik’s parents had immigrated from Pakistan. She along with her husband Syed Rizwan Farook were involved in a mass shooting at a holiday party in San Bernardino that killed 14 people and injured at least 17, the police said.

“She was issued the K-1 visa – which is normally given to fiance – by the US Embassy in Islamabad. Once a K-1 visa is issued, as per general procedure, the person has to marry the fiancee within 90 days of the arrival in the US,” Toner said.

K-1 visa becomes null and void if the marriage is not done within the stipulated 90 days. Farook’s brother-in-law, Farhan Khan, said the couple got married two years ago.

Farook was a US citizen, while Tashfeen was in the US on a Pakistani passport and had a K1 “fiance visa”, according to David Bowdich, assistant director of the Los Angeles Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office.

“She was issued, a K-1 so- called “fiance visa” in 2012. She did receive that from Pakistan that allowed her to travel here to the US,” Toner said.

Farook, son of an immigrant from Pakistan, was born in the US and was working as an environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County.

On Wednesday the couple left their six month old daughter at the home of their parents, and then went on a shooting spree at the holiday party of his own office.

The police said the shooting had been planned well in advance. The FBI has been pressed into service. All the four guns found at their home was purchased legally, the FBI said.

According to Los Angeles Times, a federal law enforcement said although investigators have yet to establish a clear motive in the shooting, they are leaning toward a possible “combination of terrorism and workplace” motivation.