KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
Police say that two suspects, a man and a woman, believed to have been involved in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, earlier today, are dead. A third person was detained, although police are not sure he was involved. The shooting killed 14 people and injured 17 more. Police say they have executed a search warrant at a house in the nearby town of Redlands, California. Here is David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI at the Los Angeles field office, speaking at the latest press conference.
DAVE BOWDICH: This is truly a tragedy in our country. And we will continue to apply all the resources necessary to assure that both us, the sheriff's department, the San Bernardino Police Department, as well as the ATF, work this thing together to assure that we have chased down every lead to solve this case.
MCEVERS: And here to talk now with us is NPR Justice Correspondent Carrie Johnson. And Carrie, is there any word now on the focus of this investigation?
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Authorities say this is a very fluid and active investigation, as you said, spread across two sites. The first, that regional center designed for people - to help people with disabilities, and then this second site in Redlands. So what authorities are saying now is there's a lot they don't know. They are not sure what the motive is in this matter. Initially, we had been hearing reports - one theory was that this was an episode of workplace violence. But in the most recent press conference authorities had, the FBI official indicated that terrorism remains a possibility, but we don't know that yet. Authorities are now continuing to clear both crime scenes. The ATF is helping to analyze possible explosive devices. There's still a lot of work to do here.
MCEVERS: And there was a lot of attention focused earlier on a black SUV that had left the scene of the shooting at this center for people with developmental disabilities, and eventually is where police say they shot and killed two of the suspects. Can you tell us about that?
JOHNSON: So the chief of police for San Bernardino had said that they were running down investigative leads. They brought - those leads brought them to a residence in Redlands, California, and when authorities arrived at that scene, people came running out of the residence into the SUV. And there was an exchange of gunfire along the way, leaving one man and one woman suspect dead. The police officials declined to identify the suspects at this point. They said a third person, a man, was running away from the scene and he's been detained. But they are not clear that he was involved in this attack. He may have just been running away for innocent reasons.
MCEVERS: And this mass shooting there in San Bernardino, California, doesn't follow any pattern that's familiar. Quickly, what are authorities doing to run down the leads they have?
JOHNSON: So they're executing that search warrant in Redlands to see what they can find. I'm sure they're also analyzing biometrics of the suspects involved. They're proceeding with a lot of caution, Kelly, because there is some fear that that residence could have explosive devices in it or something harmful to police. So they're moving slowly. And they're also analyzing video footage of that center for people with development disabilities just to try to find out whether there may have been anybody else involved with the planning of these attacks.
MCEVERS: That's NPR's Justice Correspondent, Carrie Johnson. Thank you.
JOHNSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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