FBI Raids Corona Home Of San Bernardino Shooter's Brother
CORONA (CBSLA.com) — FBI agents Thursday raided the Corona home of the brother of one of the San Bernardino terror attack shooters. Agents refused to disclose any information about the search because the warrant was sealed.
They arrived at the townhouse of Syed Raheel Farook in the 1700 block of Forum Way before daybreak, pried open the front door and stormed the house, neighbors said.
Raheel Farook - the older brother of the terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook - lives at the home with his parents, wife and one-year-old daughter.
Stacy Mozer, who lives around the corner, said this is the fourth raid at his neighbor's home following the Dec. 2 shooting.
"Homeland Security were there, and they took out boxes of papers and Computer, I think probably anything that had any information on it," Mozer said.
He wondered if the raid is connected to efforts to unlock the shooter's iPhone that Apple refused to help hack. "I'm sure they're trying to find that code. If he knows it, I wish he would let them know so that everybody would be happy and feel safer," Mozer added.
Mozer described Raheel Farook and wife, Tatiana, as ideal neighbors. The couple drove another neighbor to doctor's appointments last year when she had cancer surgery and even paid for her prescription drugs.
"I would find it very hard to believe that they would be involved in any way," Mozer said. "I do know that if you have a family member, you don't have control of their lives, and I don't think they had control of their brother's life."
Ironically, Raheel Farook is a military veteran who had earned medals for fighting global terrorism. Military records show he was in the Navy from 2003 to 2007 as an information system technician. He served aboard the USS Enterprise and received the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal among other awards.
Farook's family has said it knew nothing about the terror attack on Dec. 2, 2015 when Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.