San Bernardino County Employees Back To Work After Massacre
SAN BERNARDINO (CBSLA.com/AP) — Thousands of employees of San Bernardino County began returning to work Monday, five days after a county restaurant inspector and his wife opened fire on a gathering of his co-workers, killing 14 people and injuring 21.
The reopening of much of the government's offices signals an effort to return to normalcy for a community that has been in shock and mourning since last Wednesday's killings.
Carlo Magno, the owner of Cafe Justice, was trying to go about his normal duties, serving San Bernardino County workers snacks and coffee on a day that is anything but normal.
He said: "The hellos are a little bit more solemn." There is a void he said that is palpable. "The victims, the people that died, they're usually 'regulars' in the morning" – 'regulars' he called friends.
Another one of his regulars was Syed Farook, the man who murdered his friends last week. Magno said, in the past year, Syed's appearance and personality changed.
"First, he was just like everybody else. It wasn't until the last year that he would actually be more reclusive," Magno said. "This last year was the first time I actually seen him with any growth of facial hair."
Magno said from this year forward, the Christmas tree in his coffee shop will honor those lost. "We're going to have our Christmas tree with 14 clear bells to always commemorate them."
Eric Endler, a 30-year employee of San Bernardino County, said all weekend, his employees were calling him with concerns about returning to work.
"Don't know if I even want to go to work on Monday morning. I've got another employee that said I don't feel safe in this building," Endler said.
Along with a heavy presence of security and law enforcement officers in and around county buildings, there are signs posted mourning fallen friends.
"To honor them, to express our gratitude for their unimaginable sacrifice, we have to fight to maintain that ordinary," San Bernardino County Supervisor Janice Rutherford said Monday of the victims. "We can't be afraid of our lives, of our community, of our neighbors, of our co-workers."
The Board of Supervisors said at a news conference that all facilities would have increased security, including armed sheriff's patrols, and they are looking at additional permanent safeguards. Counseling centers and a hotline are open, and managers have been asked to look for signs of distress in their employees.
Public Health Director Trudy Raymundo, who attended the holiday luncheon where Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook attacked, thanked law enforcement who guided workers to safety and shielded them from harm. She also expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support worldwide.
Following the attack, the county shut down except for essential services, with many of its 20,000 employees staying home, said Felisa Cardona, a county spokeswoman. While most employees went back to work Monday, those at the Environmental Health Services division, where Farook and many of the victims worked, will be off at least one more week, she said.
Investigators were looking into what led Malik, 29, and Farook, 28, to attack Farook's co-workers. The couple was killed in a furious shootout with police hours later.
Farook's estranged father, also named Syed Farook, told Italian newspaper La Stampa that his son shared the ideology of the Islamic State group and was fixated on Israel.
Pakistani intelligence officials said Malik attended a religious school while living in Pakistan. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations, identified the school Monday as the Al-Huda International Seminary. Its founder has been criticized for promoting a conservative strain of Islam but the school has no known links to extremists.
Pakistani police and intelligence agents have searched the house where she lived in the city of Multan, seizing documents, family photo albums and a laptop belonging to Malik's sister, Shahida, said Shabana Saif, a counterterrorism official.
In an address to the nation Sunday, President Barack Obama said the attack was an "act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people." While there was no evidence the shooters were directed by a terror network overseas or were part of a broader plot, "the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization," he said.
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