Who Is Tashfeen Malik? Pakistani Immigrant's Background Reportedly 'Focus Of Investigation' Into San Bernardino Mass Shooting

UPDATE: Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, 12:05 p.m. EST -- Alleged San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik, 28, reportedly wrote a post on Facebook declaring her allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, three U.S. officials familiar with the investigation told CNN. The news outlet reported that the profile was under a different name and it was not clear how officials determined it belonged to Malik.

The New York Times reported that a federal official said the attack appeared to be self-motivated and inspired by the group, rather than ordered by ISIS. To read more about the allegations, click here.

Original Story:

Tashfeen Malik, who along with her husband was one of the suspected shooters in Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, was Pakistani, and her background is "now the focus of the developing investigation," a federal source told the Los Angeles Times. The shooting left 14 people dead and injured 17 more.

Malik, 27, and her husband, 28-year-old Syed Rizwan Farook, left their six-month old daughter with Farook's mother -- telling her they had a doctor's appointment -- before allegedly carrying out the shooting together at the Inland Regional Center Wednesday, a relative told the New York Times. Following a car chase, both suspected shooters later died in a gunfight with law enforcement. Farook was from Illinois, and his parents were originally from Pakistan, the New York Times reported.

Hussam Ayloush, the Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director, previously said that Malik was believed to be from Pakistan and had lived in Saudi Arabia before coming to the United States, according to the Telegraph.

Farook was employed by the county health department as an environmental health specialist and had joined a company party with colleagues before leaving after some sort of dispute occurred. He returned to the social services center with wife, dressed in tactical gear and carrying assault rifles, officials said. That led police to believe there was an element of planning to the attack.

"I don't think they just ran home, put on these types of tactical clothes, grabbed guns and came back on a spur-of-the-moment thing," San Bernardino Police Department Chief Jarrod Burguan said in a news conference, via NPR.

The motive of the attack was not yet clear. “It is possible that this was terrorist-related, but we don’t know,” U.S. President Barack Obama said in an address from the Oval Office Thursday. “It’s also possible that this was workplace-related.”

Co-workers expressed disbelief that Farook and his wife were the suspected shooters. The couple appeared to be "living the American dream," said Patrick Baccari, a co-worker who shared a cubicle with Farook, according to the Los Angeles Times. Farook and Malik had been married for two years. A family member of the couple reacted with questions of his own.

“I have no idea why he [Farook] would do something like this. I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself,” Farhan Khan, Farook’s brother-in-law, told reporters.