Farook planned earlier terror attack, says pal who supplied guns in San Bernardino shooting

Fox News:

The mysterious pal of Syed Rizwan Farook who bought the rifles used in last week’s deadly terror attack in Southern California has told authorities Farook aborted an earlier attack, Fox News has learned.

Enrique Marquez, a former neighbor who is reportedly related to Farook by marriage, is cooperating with investigators and has not been named as a suspect in last Wednesday’s attack, which left 14 dead and 21 injured in a San Bernardino social services facility. Authorities have so far said they believe Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, are the only known perpetrators of the attack, although Marquez was identified early on as the legal purchaser of the two AR-15 assault rifles used in the attack. 

It was not immediately clear when the scuttled attack was planned or what its target was. CNN, citing two U.S. officials, reported earlier Tuesday that Farook and another unidentified individual may have conspired to carry out an attack in 2012. However, one official told CNN that the pair “got spooked” and decided not to go through with their plan after a series of terror-related arrests in Southern California.

Authorities had previously said that Farook and Malik were planning a follow-up attack after the San Bernardino assault when they were killed in a gun battle with local authorities last week. However, they have been unable to identify what the target of that attack would have been.