>> a state in shock. at least 14 people were killed and 17 wounded when gun fire erupted at a social services center in california. police have named one of the suspects and say two suspects are dead. the question of why remains unanswered tonight.

good evening i'm antonio mora and this is al jazeera america. police have identified one of the suspects as said farouk, he and at least win other suspect escaped the scene of the shootings. >> the suspects that were -- that are dead at the scene one is a male one is a female. they were dressed in kind of assault-style clothing. i think it is probably the best way to term it. they are both armed with assault rifles. they are both armed with handguns. and there's also kind of some sensitive stuff around the vehicle that they're just not real sure they're taking a very cautious approach to dealing with the vehicle in case there's more explosives there. >> it's unclear if said farouk was the man killed in the shootout with police. at that same news conference, the fbi's assistant director of the fbi office, addressed

motive. >> the questions that will come up repeatedly some is is this terrorism, i'm not prepared to say we know that for sure. we are definitely making some movements that it is a possibility. we are making some adjustments to our investigation it is a possibility but we don't know that yet and we're not willing to go down that road yet. >> aal jazeera's jennifer london joins us from san bernardino. fluid investigation, lots of things happening over the last few hours. >> reporter: antonio, the lock down that gripped the city of san bernardino earlier today that has been lifted tonight. but we know the area where the mass shooting occurred the inland regional center that area is not secure and just about five minutes ago we did hear a detonation sound, an explosive sound coming behind me which is the direction of the location where the shooting you occurred. police earlier this evening saying that the building was not secure because of a possible explosive device, they had the

bomb squad there and they were going very carefully very meticulously room to room in this large building looking for possible explosive device. at this point we can't say emphatically the detonation sound we heard was that explosive device. we are hoping to learn more at a press briefing around 8:30 local time. why, why the shooting, we simply don't know the motive behind this mass shooting that left 14 people dead and 17 others wounded. when the attack began some people inside the inland regional center said they thought it was a drill. others outside, "like" juan hernandez, knew it was gun fire. >> kind of sounded like a shooting range, shots like crazy. >> triage centers were set up on the streets. as balance he and emergency vehicles were sent to the area.

people inside sent text messages to loved ones. >> started shooting they locked themselves in, in her office. they seen bodies open the floor. and she said right now ambulance are taking people out in stretchers. our daughter is in there she texted us about 30 minutes ago and said that there was a shooter. she said she thought he had shot ten to 20 people. >> police escorted people out of the social services building. a witness described an atmosphere of fear. >> people were running everywhere and he said it was almost like a massacre. >> reporter: well, tonight investigators have directed their attention to the city of redlands, california. it's a city about ten miles tote east of san bernardino. a tip came in earlier today. police issued a search warrant on a house. that is where they found the two suspects that were later killed in the police shootout.

we have been told that police are still at a location in redlands searching for clues and answers, antonio. >> jennifer how close are you to the scene of this morning's shootings and what is the scene like there at this point? >> we are a few miles from the scene of the mass shooting this morning and as best we know from the last press conference when police were revealing details about that scene is that they were saying it's not secure. it's not a safe area. and this is in the context of all the other lock down and shelter-in-place police talk or stay inside, lock your doors, don't come outside, all of those lock downs and shelter in place orders have been lifted for other areas of the city. but the scene where the mass shooting took place we were told was not secure was not safe because of this possible explosive device. we know teams are still at that location and also at a location in redlands, california.

>> jennifer london in san bernardino.thanks. jack thomas tomarcho is a former undersecretary at the homeland security department and a student of terrorism. earlier he spoke to al jazeera about what we can expect from the government in the coming days and weeks. >> one of the things that the federal government is going to do certainly this is still an ongoing incident they are going to try with the help of the san bernardino police with the fbi the california state police all the other agencies that are on the scene right now, they are going to be harvesting as much information as possible. they need to find out the identities of these individuals, how they got their guns, where they got their guns. was there planning involved, obviously there was, was there anybody else who might have helped them in the perpetration of these acts and what were possibly the motives? were these just criminals, were

these individuals who had a political motive, was it a politically motivated terrorist action, was it a copy cat action that happened in paris? right now we don't know these things and we're not going to know that nutritionally or probably in the next 48 hours because we are still harvesting that evidence but what the intelligence community will do what the law enforcement community will do once this incident is over is, they will begin literally connecting the dots and trying to answer these questions. that will tell us what we need to do better next time. the biggest problem is these are very, very hard incidents to prevent, especially if you have no prior warning or the perpetrators are individuals that are below the radar screen. we don't know if they have been but it's important to find out. >> darren porcher is a retired

nypd police officer. do you agree with what he has to say? >> i agree wholeheartedly. there is a lot of legwork involved establishing the motive. what is the background of these individuals? this is going to evolve a poin pointdirectioed direction of thw enforcement. i don't want to be so quick to state that this is a terrorist act. many people just based on this being a muslim person would say automatically yes, this must be an example of radical islam. but i'm not so sure. that could be the case but it's just too far in the game for us to make that assessment. too early in the game. consume. >> now that they have identified the suspects they clearly know who it was for a few hours now

and probably have already been looking into this home -- >> we discussed this earlier. law enforcement, you got to remember they went through a residence in redlands, california, that residence had the dna of the assailants. >> everything about their action. >> exactly. >> they will be looking at their friends their neighbors to see what could have happened. >> look at their records, who was the last they contacted, that being a muslim american acknowledge they might want to look into that person's entrance into the united states. >> even though he has been identified there has been no reference as to what his motive was. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> it's hard to believe it was just a disgruntled employee who went back to such event to shoot

people. >> it was too calculated an attack. whether i mentioned this in terms of looking into this individual's entrance into the united states, whether they were muslim if they came from china if they came from paris if they came from canada. we would still look towards what their entrance point into the united states was, regardless to -- whatever their race or ethnicity is, or what their practice is based on religion. that has nothing to do with it. and how did they get here? >> when you talk about that, another thing screams out to me that this couldn't be spontaneous is the fact that it was at least two people likely it could have been three. >> right. generally speaking whether we have these mass shootings in the united states it's usually one shooter. to have two people is very rare. three is extremely rare. when i see three people i think from the perspective of there's a group involved. right now we have two definite, three possible.

so when i think in terms of a group that's approaching something like this, what is their ideology? what was the message behind this? what was the meaning? because although this was a soft target, when i think of terrorism for example, this is not -- i think of you know a health facility, let's say a health seminar people from the department of health? this is something that would be very low on the radar. so it begs the question as to what is the ideology moving forward? >> and we'll wait and see what authorities have to say this evening and we'll stay on top of that and we'll keep you around to discuss it whether we do hear what they have to say. now president obama responded to the shootings by again calling on lawmakers to take action on gun control. lisa stark has more on that from washington. >> antonio, the president was informed soon after this shooting began, the white house monitored the situation throughout the day and into the evening. the president has said previously as these mass shootings have continued that

this is not normal. we cannot let this become normal. he last said there are steps we can take to reduce these tragedies. it is a sentiment he repeated in an interview today with cbs news. >> we don't yet know what the motives of the shooters are, but what we do know is that there's steps that we can take to make americans safer and that we should come together in a bipartisan basis at every level of government to make these rare, as opposed to normal. we should never think that this is something that just happens in the ordinary course of events, because it doesn't happen with the same frequency in other countries. >> on capitol hill, at the annual lighting of the capital christmas tree, speaker paul ryan began by acknowledging the events in california. >> i just want to say that we are all thinking about the current and ongoing tragedy in

california today. and i would like to have a brief moment of silence, now for those who are affected. [ moment of silence ] >> please keep the victims and their families in your prayers right now. >> reporter: there is much more strident language from democrats including those who have tried to pass what they say are common sense gun laws. that includes connecticut's senator chris murphy. of course connecticut is where the sandy hook shooting took place bass in 2012, the elementary school shooting there. chris murphy said today your thoughts should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. your prayer should be for forgiveness if you do nothing again. murphy has indicated that he will once begin try to pass some sort of laws in congress to try to what he says close loopholes

that allow people to buy guns who should not good them but there is really very little appetite on capitol hill for any legislation like this. antonio. >> lisa stark reporting from washington. mass shootings have become an all too common occurrence here in the u.s. especially when compared to other industrialized nations. jonathan betz has more. jonathan. >> average america sees a mass shooting 12 times a year. when you include the rampage today in california, there have been 355 mass shootings in the ufs so far this year. now these are shoots in which at least four people have been shot and/or killed. a lot of the shots don't make national headlines. since friday alone, the country has seen three mass shootings.

in fact there was one this morning in savannah, georgia, one woman was killed and three others were shot. today'today's shooting in califa is the deadliest shooting in the united states since sandy hook, have so many been killed by gunmen in the united states. today's toll still stands at 14 in california. experts kind of disagree here and maibledz because these mass shootings have not been clearly tracked. top-of-the-line. >> jonathan, thanks. we are waiting for another news conference in san bernardino, california, we'll bring that to you when we have it, when we come back.

>> this is a live picture from san bernardino, california east of los angeles where we're awaiting a news conference to bring us up to date on our top story this evening, the deadly mass shooting there in southern california. the police in san bernardino have said at least 14 wers killed and 17 wounded when attackers opened fire at a social services is center, later, with two people, one man and one woman, wearing assault

style clothing, were killed. wurone person, said farouk, was detained. restriction was first put in place in 1996 acknowledge it bars the cdc from using federal funding to advocate or promoted gun control. the agencies has since refrained from conducting gun studies so it would not risk losing any of its funding. in other news more americans underwent background checks for gun purchases on black friday than any other day. 180,000 background check requests last friday, 5% increase from the same day in 2014. prosecutors and defense attorneys presented opening arguments today in the case of

william porter, the first of six baltimore police officers to stand trial for the death of freddy gray, being transported in the police wagon last april. john terret reports. >> the prosecutor said he could have saved freddy gray's life if he had acted properly. a yawning gap between the way the prosecution and the defense see the date of april 12th. >> the prosecution zeroed in on the way freddy gray was loaded on the police van and placed on his stomach. second when he responded to a call to check on freddy gray, prosecutor said at that point gray was having difficulty breathing and already showing signs of a broken neck. prosecution said gray asked for a medic, said he couldn't breathe, and asked to be held

off the floor of the van. the progression curiosity said he sat him on the seat of the van, closed the doors of the van leaving freddy gray shackled and handcuffed. >> the prosecution was looking to reveal to the jury that officer porter did not do all of the things he was legally required to do. he did not protect freddy gray from the moment he was taken into custody. >> the defense painted a different picture, attorney joseph mertha said officer porter became a police officer because he wanted to help people. the defense maintained freddy gray was not injured and officer porter said gray had a case of jailitis. he said at 132 pounds gray was

violently rocking the police van from side to side and police quoted a witness dante allen, who shared part of his ride to jail, and porter is accused of manslaughter assault and reckless endangerment. his case rests on what he did and did not do on april the 12th. >> i found that the pros cures made a -- prosecution made a very effective argument. the defense put forward many different theories for how they hoped to establish a reasonable doubt of officer porter's guilt. >> shortly after opening arguments, a phone call, the case will resume on thursday and will last no longer than december the 17th. >> john terret reporting from

baltimore. tonight britain says it has carried out its first air strikes against i.s.i.l. in syria just hours after parliament voted to authorize those bombing raids. emma hayward has more in london. >> reporter: it is perhaps the toughest political decision, whether to vote for military action or not. no surprise then that the chamber was packed. mps waiting to hear the british prime minister's argument or the striking i.s.i.l. in syria. >> these terrorists are plotting to kill us and to radicalize our children right now. they attack us because of who bee are. not because of -- we are not because of what we do. >> com ron's refusal to apologize for branding terrorist sympathizers, fueled the fire inside westminster. >> it is untrue. >> this is a debate which has

divided opinion inside and outside the house. no one here doubts the dangers posed by i.s.i.l. and something needs to be done but how to do it has caused eruptions within british politics. >> whether it is the absence of credible ground troops, the failure to engage the impact of the terrorist 30th or the civilian casualties, it is becoming increasingly clear that the prime minister's proposal for military action simply do not stack up. >> reporter: many in parliament wanted to know about the claim that there were some 70,000 moderate opposition forces willing to fight i.s.i.l. on the ground. >> i'm not arguing that the 70,000 are ideal partners, some of them do have views that we don't agree with but the definition of the 70,000 is those people that wo we have ben prepared to work with and continue to be prepared to work with. >> even before i.s.i.l.'s attack

on paris which killed 130 people, mr. cameron was steering his government to make this choice. a vote on attacking president assad's forces in syria failed to pass in 2013. a year later though mps here voted to carry out air strikes on i.s.i.l. in iraq. >> extending bombing from iraq to syria is a small element. over and above that we've got to put all we're doing into a wider diplomatic and political framework to build a more secure future for syria and to secure the area itself. >> there is an overwhelming feeling that this motion will pass but britain is war weary. the conflicts in iraq and afghanistan still loom large. one newspaper poll suggests that just over half the population supports military action. but assuming mp support air

strikes could begin within days or even hours. emma hayward, al jazeera, london. turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan, is denying that turkey is buying oil from i.s.i.l. >> we flatly reject that the turks are somehow working with i.s.i.l. that is preposterous and really very kind of ridiculous. >> russia's deputy defense minister has accused the turkish president and his family of benefiting from illegal trade with i.s.i.l. during the briefing, satellite images showing the oil tankers from i.s.i.l. to turkey. as we await new details from authorities in california we will look at whether a pattern is starting to emerge from a

growing number of mass shootings in the united states.

>> the nation is reeling tonight from yet another debtly mass shooting. 14th people were killed and 17 injured in a center for

developmentally disabled individuals. two suspects are dead one of them a woman in a shootout with police while a third has been detaid. police have identified one of the services as said farouk, not clear whether he was killed in that gun battle with police. jennifer london joins us from san bernardino. jennifer. >> antonio we were waiting for a press conference, to begin, we are told that it will be postponed for about a half an hour. but we do know that athe council of islamic relations for greater los angeles is about to hold a press conference, 50 miles west of san bernardino, we were told from a press release that the are group will condemn the shootings, they will say they have the relative ofhe