by police. [ gunshots ] >> confirmed we got a shooter in that car. >> reporter: police zero in on syed rizwan farook and his wife tashfeen malik, who just hours before had brutally shot and killed 14 people at an office event. acting on a tip, officers head to a house in the town of redlands, just ten miles from the scene of the mass shooting. as they approach the home, a black ford suv drives by, slowly at first, then speeding away. >> we are in pursuit of the suspect vehicle eastbound on san bernardino avenue from richardson. we've got shots fired out the back window. >> reporter: one shooter fires at police who are in hot pursuit. the chase headed back to san bernardino. all of it playing out on live television. >> we have units at san bernardino and richardson that are taking fire. >> reporter: the suv comes to a stop, and a full-scale gun battle breaks out. [ gunshots ] the shooters firing 76 rounds,

at least 21 officers returned fire. nearly 400 rounds riddle the suv. >> multiple shots fired! we need a bearcat. we need medical aid. >> right now we have one down outside the car. one down inside the car. >> reporter: rizwan farook gets out, but he doesn't get far, his body lying in a pool of blood just across the street. malik, her 6-month-old daughter at home with grandma, dies in the vehicle. as darkness falls, a robot enters the shooter's home. found inside thousands of rounds of ammunition, 12 pipe bomb, and what investigators call a bomb lab. with hundreds of tools that could be used to make explosives. and the question remains tonight with all of those bombaking materials, the pipe bombs, the tools found in the couple's home, did they have bigger plans? were there other targets? that we may never know. but the fbi digging through their garage, their home today

to try to find any clues they can as to what could have possibly been the motivation behind this mass murder. poppy harlow, cnn, san bernardino, california. the fbi has also been interviewing the gunmen's family as they try and piece together a possible motive for the shootings, even farook's brother-in-law said he had no idea why farook and malik carried out the attack. as tom foreman shows us, that's just one of the questions facing investigators right now. >> let's start at this office gathering where authorities say farook left angry after some sort of dispute and returned in short order with his wife and the shooting began. that's where the first real question arises here. and that is what set him off. was it really an honest dispute or was it some sort of pretext to start the attack? were there any warning signs? was he having any problem that somebody might have been aware of that would have told him this was on the way?

and why were the explosives not detonated? authorities tell us they had some bombs of a short here that could have been set off remotely. they were never set off. did they get out of range? did they forget? did they change their mind? we don't know. move to their home about a six minute drive away, and we get a whole new set of questions. the first one being why did they return home? certainly farook had to be aware of the possibility that someone at the office would have recognized him and alerted police. and indeed the police were there. they spotted them. the chase followed. the shoot-out as well. beyond that, when you think about all of the thousands of rounds of ammunition, all the bomb making equipment authorities have cited in the home, how long were they preparing? that's another important question. and beyond that, if you move to the final stage here, the shoot-out in which they lost their lives here, there is a big question in play here. were they planning something else, either before or after this other event here? why did they act now?

and was someone else involved, either on the ground or from afar helping them out? these are all the many, many, many questions that are out there right now, and there aren't so far many answers. >> thanks to tom foreman for that. and of course, isha, amid all of the chaos and the carnage here, because this attack was at a county function and involved county workers at a government facility, many of the government buildings around san bernardino were put on lockdown. and that included the hospitals as well. as they ferried all of the wounded to the hospitals, the doctors inside were treating them in a lockdown situation, not entirely sure what was happening. because at this point, at the height of all of this, the gunmen were actually still out there, both farook and his wife malik. >> hospitals have drills for this kind of thing. but i don't think anything request truly prepare you for the minute you realize you have victims of mass shooting heading your way. 21 people were wounded in this brutal mass shooting, and they

were rushed to the nearby hospitals. six patients were taken to arrowhead regional medical center. and the doctors and nurses had just minutes to prepare. this picture was taken in the hospital's trauma room wednesday, just before the victims arrived. cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta spoke to some of the medical team about what they faced that horrific day. >> you're look inside one of the emergency rooms where patients were brought after the mass shooting that rocked southern california. >> we have ten operating rooms ready to go. and radiology was ready. everyone was ready. >> so here is where things took place. we're in the emergency room, the arrowhead medical center. here is where the calls came in. at about 30 minutes before the patients would start to arrive. behind these doors are the trauma bays. take a look at what it looks like now and compare it to what it looked like yesterday. for every patient brought in, there are four or five doctors prepared to treat the wounded. >> if you're looking at one of

these bays, what does it look like as you're waiting for the stations to come in? >> essentially, we had a senior er resident at the head with attending anesthesiologist. we had an attending trauma surgeon at the foot running the show. and we had a junior er resident doing primary survey, disrobing patients and checking for injuries. >> reporter: dr. kona singh was the er doctor in charge. >> how much information do you have before the patients actually come to the doors? >> very little, to be honest. essentially, i was given reports of patient injuries as far as location, where they were shot. and mental status. that was basically all we had as they hit our doors. we had to sort of prepare for a larger influx of patients than we normally would. things you wouldn't normally think of, calling blood bank for blood, getting enough blankets, enough iv fluids. >> reporter: dr. detective is the chief of surgery, who along

with dr. seng spoke exclusively to cnn, describing how they had to manage the worst mass shooting these doctors had ever seen. >> we made a decision to send one patient straight to the operation room, two patients to the ct scan and one had to wait. >> it's the waiting, the not knowing. that's the toughest part for any medical team. >> what is the thing you worry about the most in these types of situations? >> that your resources get stretched so much that you might not be able to provide care to all the people. who come. and you have to decide who goes first, who goes second, who goes third. sometimes you have to decide who is -- who is futile so don't waste a lot of time and resources. and that can be the most difficult thing you can decide in mass casualties. >> that's something you probably think about over and over again. >> absolutely. because in my mind, god should

be the one who decides that rather than you. >> reporter: whoever made the decision, all six patients treated here are expect to survive. and do well. dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, san bernardino county, california. >> a horrifying day for those first responders. well, for two decades, the u.s. centers for disease control has not been allowed to research gun violence. ahead we'll hear from a doctor who said that's a public health issue and wants that ban abolished. believe it. at&t and directv are now one. which means you can watch in the house, in a treehouse, or even in miss pepperpie's house. pause in your pjs and hit play during a pb&j. nice! and enjoy some cartoons instead of listening to dad's car tunes.

(dad) ♪meet you all the way! get the best of both worlds. directv at home and 2 wireless lines. from directv and at&t. like limiting where you earn bonus cash back.hings. why put up with that? but the quicksilver card from capital one likes to keep it simple. real simple. i'm talking easy like-a- walk-in-the-park, nothing-to-worry-about, man-that-feels-good simple. quicksilver earns you unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. it's a simple question. what's in your wallet? thso we got our new he washingzy machine but it took forever turns out it wasn't the machine, it was our detergent. so we switched to tide turbo clean. now we get way cleaner clothes way faster he turbo clean. 6x the cleaning power in ½ the time checking my free credit score at creditkarma. i have great credit

when was the last time you checked? so righteous. rad. i want it. it is rad, but we're gonna have to like check your credit score, so... oh my god, it's like totally yours. you know credit scores change, right? aren't you curious to see what it is right now? ah! still rad. credit karma, get your free score now

that's why i switched from u-verse to xfinity. now i can download my dvr recordings and take them anywhere. ready or not, here i come! (whispers) now hide-and-seek time can also be catch-up-on-my-shows time. here i come! can't find you anywhere! don't settle for u-verse. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. you are watching cnn's breaking coverage of a deadly shooting here in california. i'm isha sesay in los angeles. >> i'm john vause in san bernardino. authorities here in california

believe a combination of workplace grievances and terrorism may have led to wednesday's deadly shooting. sources say the gunmen syed rizwan farook was apparently radicalized. he had been in touch with a number of people under investigation by the fbi for international terrorism. meantime, law enforcement officials say they have recovered two smashed cell phones from a garbage can near one of the crime scenes. officials suspect the phones were damaged to try and hide the call history. and authorities recovered a computer from the shooter's home. but the hard drive was missing. investigators believe it was removed and possibly destroyed. i'll have much more from san bernardino in just a few moments. but in the meantime, let's go back to isha in los angeles with more information about the mass shootings in the united states and some more perspective on just how often these events occur. >> yeah, john, it's important to put this all in context for our viewers, because records show that mass shootings occur in the u.s. on average more than once a day.

shooting tracker.com defines a mass shooting as one that leaves four or more people wounded or dead. there have been 353 of those in the u.s. this year. taking place in 220 cities and 47 states, including wednesday's attack, a total of 462 people have been killed in mass shootings in 2015. and more than 1300 have been injured. well, in their first appearances since wednesday's shooting, republican presidential candidates expressed condolences to the victims' families and survivors. and while president obama has hesitated on calling the shooting terrorism, some gop candidates didn't hold back. >> we had another event which probably was the one yesterday, probably was related. radical islamic terrorism. and i'll tell you what. we have a president that refuses to use the term. he refuses to say it. there is something going on with

him. >> politically correct doublespeak that comes from the obama militia. has again beyond the point of ridiculous. >> i am convinced that was a terrorist attack. [ applause ] and the president continues to wring his hands and say we'll see. >> the brutal savagery of islamic terrorism exists. and that president and his former secretary of state cannot call it for what it is. >> thank you so much for joining us. now, you said the u.s. is dealing with a gun violence epidemic. and you actually belong to a group of physicians who believe we should be looking at the problem of gun violence as a public health issue. why is that important? >> gun violence is something that is affecting communities, individuals, families across the country every single day. and as medical professionals, as

doctors, as nurses, as public health professionals, we're seeing these people coming into our hospital, ers, people coming in with injuries, people who are killed by violence, we're seeing them. we're having to treat them every single day. so it is clearly a public health issue. >> so with that in mind, i've got to ask you. what went through your mind when you first heard about wednesday's mass shooting in california? >> well, like everyone else, i was -- had a mixture of shock and a feeling of wow, is this happening again? yet one more time. and i really have the sense that we've had this ban on the cdc doing gun violence research for 20 years. and it is time. it is beyond time for congress to take action and make sure that we can do research so we can prevent these kind of tragedies from happening so, so often. >> to talk to me about the impact of this ban. talk to me about the kind of data you believe is being lost because it's in place.

>> well, we do have a small number of researchers who have been doing research during the past 20 years. but it's not nearly enough. we have over 32,000 people who are dying of gun violence every year in america. and there is so much information that we don't have. we don't know what are the best ways that we can prevent a teenager from committing suicide with a gun. where are the urban violence that is happening, where are those guns coming from. are they illegal? are they legal? what are the best ways to prevent a child from accidentally finding a gun and shooting their sibling? these are some basic questions that we need answered. >> and i think it's worth underscoring what you just said. the focus here is not simply looking at mass shootings of the kind that just happened in california. >> exactly. >> you're looking at gun violence as a whole. >> absolutely. 89 people a day are dying from gun violence in this country.

2/3 are from suicide. there are so many people who are being harmed, families that are being harmed. and we need answers. >> how much buy-in do you have from law enforcement for the lifting of the ban on research? there. >> is a lot of -- there is a lot of outcry among -- certainly among the medical and public health community. i think there are a lot of people in this country who don't even me this ban is in effect. most people have i talked to, they say what? we can't do research on gun violence? that doesn't make any sense. so the more we've been talking to people, the more people have realized wow, this is a ban that makes no sense for this country. we need to lift it now. we need to fund the research that is going to save lives. >> how optimistic are you that the ban will be lifted? >> i am a optimistic. congress has an opportunity right now to lift the ban. if they don't do it now, they have an opportunity at any moment that i can can lift this ban. and we are seeing an increasing outcry among so many people who

are saying this is not an issue of right versus left, of republicans versus democrats. these are questions everyone wants answers to. every time we hear stories of another shooting, one of the first questions all of us ask is how did this happen and how can we prevent it. and that is exactly what we're trying to get done. >> dr. chen, we appreciate your efforts. you're joining us here to discuss them. thank you so much for speaking us to. >> thank you so much for having me. time for a quick break. a shattered community takes a step toward healing. just ahead, a look at the candlelight vigil to remember those killed in the san bernardino shooting. gotta take a sick day tomorrow.

dads don't take sick days, dads take nyquil severe the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep with a cold, medicine.

hucheck out credit karma today.e credit karma, give yourself some your own credit.nt having one tool to get the job done helps you work smarter. craftsman tools have a long history of making tool sets that help you move from job to job without skipping a beat. like this 42 piece 3/8 inch drive bit socket set.

no need for all those hex keys anymore, this ratchet set does it all. with all these bit sockets and an extension on the ratchet, i can get into all of the tough to reach places. saving my knuckles, and saving time. with this set, i have all the tools i need to get the job done quickly. no more hex keys. just get this handy 42 pc set, and get it now at 70% off, for only $29.99. and craftsman hand tools are protected by a lifetime full warranty. this holiday season craftsman tools are the perfect gift for the one who keeps things moving around your house.

well, investigators search for a motive in wednesday's killing spree, the community is now taking steps to try and heal. hundreds gathered for a candlelight vigil at a stadium

in san bernardino on thursday night. impromptu vigils sprang up near the site of the shooting. also at churches throughout the area. the largest mosque in san bernardino county also held a prayer vigil for the victims. muslim leaders have been quick to condemn the massacre as well. u.s. president barack obama also honored the shooting victims during the annual tree lighting ceremony in washington on thursday night. the first family was there for the lighting. and while it is normally a fun, joyous occasion, there were some somber moments as well as mr. obama took time to honor those who were killed. >> their loss is our loss too. for we're all one american family. we look out for each other. in good times and in bad. they should know all that all of us care about them this holiday season. they're in our thoughts.

they're in our prayers. and we send them our love. >> 14 people killed. 21 people who -- 17 people, rather, who were wounded in the community now left to reel after another shooting tragedy. and of course isha, we have seen these scenes play out so many times before after these kind of mass shootings. people come together. they pray. and then they pray and they hope that these things will never happen again. but yet they continue to happen in this country. and of course the moment these shootings happen, both sides go to their corners, and no one seems to come together to try to work out ways to try and stop it. >> yeah, there is no doubt about that. that it plays out in the same way over and over again. sadly, still, john, so many unanswered questions in this latest mass shooting. i'm just wondering what your sense is in terms of the scale of resources that have been thrown at this investigation to help people find some answers. >> yeah, this has been a massive response by all accounts from

the moment that that shooting took place to the hundreds of police officers who were dispatched to now the grief counselors and the medical teams in place to help this community get through this terrible, terrible event. and of course we are here in the days after the shooting. but as we have seen time and time again for the communities, be it sandy hook, be it roseburg in oregon, be it columbine, you can good through the list, virginia tech, on and on it goes, these people in this community will be dealing with the tragedy and the fallout of wednesday's event not just for days, not just for week, but for months and for years to come. and obviously for those who have lost loved ones, this will never come to an end. because that will continue to grieve for the people who were killed. and for so many people here, this is such a senseless event. this was a holiday party. there was no rhyme or reason to this. everyone keeps looking for this motive. but even if they do find a motive for, this a workplace disagreement, terrorism, whatever it was, it was senseless.

these people died for no good reason. >> yeah, lives forever altered. thank you, john, for sharing your thoughts there. you're watching cnn's coverage of a shooting massacre here in california. i'm isha sesay in los angeles. >> john vause here live in san bernardino, california. please stay with us on cnn. a lot more after a short break. ♪ the way i see it, you have two choices; the easy way or the hard way. you could choose a card that limits where you earn bonus cash back. or, you could make things easier on yourself. that's right, the quicksilver card from capital one. with quicksilver you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. so, let's try this again. what's in your wallet?

some of these experimentse're notmay not work.il. but a few might shape the future. like turning algae into biofuel... ...new technology for capturing co2 emissions... ...and cars twice as efficient as the average car today. ideas exxonmobil scientists are working on to make energy go further... ...no matter how many tries it takes. energy lives here. it begins from the the second we're born.er. because, healthier doesn't happen all by itself. it needs to be earned every day. using wellness to keep away illness. and believing a single life can be made better by millions of others. as a health services and innovation company optum powers modern healthcare by connecting every part of it. so while the world keeps searching for healthier we're here to make healthier happen.

at&t and directv are now one. which means you can watch in the house, in a treehouse, or even in miss pepperpie's house. pause in your pjs and hit play during a pb&j. nice! and enjoy some cartoons instead of listening to dad's car tunes. (dad) ♪meet you all the way! get the best of both worlds. directv at home and 2 wireless lines. from directv and at&t.

investigators searching for a motive as they reveal new details about the couple behind the mass shooting and their arsenal. >> and we're learning more about the victims and those they left behind. you're watching special coverage of the mass shooting in california. hello, everyone, i'm natalie allen at cnn center atlanta. >> i'd like to welcome everybody in the united states and all around the world. i'm john vause in san bernardino. we begin with new details about the man and woman who carried out that deadly shooting.

sources say syed rizwan farook was apparently radicalized. he had been in touch with a number of people under investigation by the fbi for international terrorism. farook and his wife tashfeen malik had a dozen pipe bombs and a stockpile of ammunition at their home not far from here in the city of redlands. investigators say the heavily armed couple fired between 65 and 75 rounds at a holiday party on wednesday, killing 14 people, wounding 21 others. they were killed in a shoot-out with police. about four hours later, investigators say they have found two smashed cell phones in a trash can near one crime scene. and they have recovered a computer from the couple's home. but someone had removed the hard drive. >> this may be a sign investigators believe that the two shooters were trying to hide their tracks and make it difficult for investigators to figure out who they were communicating with in the days leading up to wednesday's massacre. the two cell phones were

recovered from a garbage can near one of three crime scenes. now the work for fbi technicians is to try to recover information from the cell phones as well as from computers that were found at the home of the two shooters. >> justice correspondent evan perez there. now anderson cooper takes a closer look at some of the other details we've been learning about the shooters and the investigation including those possible ties to terrorism. [ siren ] >> reporter: you're watching the last images of the killers in their suv before they're shot to death in a hail of gunfire. oh, my gosh. >> reporter: recorded by a resident just down the street from where syed farook and husband wife tashfeen malik made their last stand with law enforcement. >> they opened fire fire. rounds came out of the back of the car from the female that was in the backfiring through the back of the suv at the police vehicles. and then the male suspect who was the driver got out and fired at officers from the street as

well. >> shots fired! >> reporter: the shoot-out in realtime heard over police radio. [ gunshots ] >> one guy down, one guy in the back of a car. >> reporter: we now know farook and his wife fired close to 80 rounds. 23 officers returned fire, killing the couple on the scene. and today we learn they'd had an arsenal in that suv. >> they had over 1400 .223 caliber rounds that were available to them. and they had over 2009 millimeter rounds. they had nine million meter pistols with them. >> reporter: and authorities would find an even bigger arsenal here at the couple's home. thousands of rifle rounds, pistol rounds, 12 pipe bombs and tools used to make ieds. jason simmons says his mother is one of farook's neighbors. >> how did they seem to you? >> like a normal family. >> reporter: law enforcement sources tell cnn it appears

farook, a u.s. citizen, was radicalized, and he was in touch with more than one terrorism suspect where the fbi were already investigating. it's unclear if the suspects were overseas or lived in the united states. as of now, law enforcement is still unwilling to state a definitive motive for this mass killing. we do know that a holiday party was under way at the inland regional center yesterday when farook left under duress. according to law enforcement, when he returned, he and his wife dressed in tactical gear sprayed the room with bullets and left behind a homemade bomb. >> the suspects when they entered fired between 65 and 57 rounds from their rifles at the scene. we did locate the one pipe bomb that was actually three pipe bombs combined into one that had a remote control car, type remote control device that appears to have not worked in this case. >> reporter: they fled the scene in the black suv, and authorities say a witness to the massacre identified farook,

which led them to his home. while police were there, the suv passed by the house and then sped off. it led to this. the end of the chase and the beginning of the larger investigation. anderson cooper, cnn, san bernardino. >> and the coroner here has released the names of the 14 people killed on wednesday. among them is 52-year-old nicholas thalasinos. he was an employee at the county environmental health department. 40-year-old robert adams was a husband and the father of a 20-month-old daughter. his family says they're planning their first trip to disneyland together. 37-year-old michael wetzel also worked at the environmental health department. he leaves behind a wife and six children. police say the 14 people killed, 12 were county employees. there were about 80 people attending the party when the shooting happened. >> just that picture of those six children and the mom who

were left behind. so sad. well, loved ones of those who died are sharing some stories of their husbands, wives, partners, sisters and brothers. 42-year-old daniel kaufman say mong them. he helped people learn job skills at the inland regional center. kaufman's boyfriend, ryan reyes shared what he wants the world to know about daniel. >> daniel was one of those people that everybody loved. he -- i know it's cliche to say that people smiles could light up room. but this was really true about daniel. the man could have a 30-minute conversation with a cashier at the grocery store about his cats. and i would literally have to pull him away and be okay, they're working and there is a line forming. and, yeah, just one of the people that everybody loved. got along with everybody. the life of the party. always funny, always creative. >> and sometimes a single picture can capture the mood of

a story quite perfectly. that's the case with this shot from the arrowhead regional medical center in colton, california. you can see more than two dozen doctors, nurses, and emts in the emergency room preparing for the first victims to arrive. what a night they had. cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta spoke with the families of some of those wounded in wednesday's shooting. >> after hearing the gunfire, she dropped to the floor. she was shot one time in her lower back. the bullet is still lodged in her lower right abdomen, i think it's her right side. at this time we're not sure when she'll be released. she is trying to stay in good spirits and have positive thoughts. but today is definitely a more emotional day for her, you know. trying to wrap her head around everything that went on. >> she with a few other people hide inside the bathroom. four or five people together.

and she realize hands are bleeding and stomach also got hit. but these are not life threatening. it just her right hand was a little more serious injury. it went in and out. and the left was much less serious injury. so it is like a miracle. and to hit above our head, hit the wall, it's a miracle she survived. >> and we're hearing from more people who knew the gunman and survived the attack. one of those speaking out is a man who shared a cubicle with farook at work. cnn's kyung lah reports that colleague story is chilling. [ siren ] . >> just minutes before the attacks started he left to use the bathroom. >> i was being pummelled while i was pulling the towels out of

the dispenser. i looked back this the mirror. i could see i was bleeding in my temple, my nose. >> reporter: he hid in the bathroom while syed farook and his wife fired off 76 rounds, killing 14 people. farook and baccari shared a cubicle for three years. at the intern county health department. they talked about cars, farook's 6-month-old daughter, regular chat between two coworkers. >> why do you think he did this? >> well, i think his beliefs were contrary to our american dreams. you would think that somebody that is working to the capacity and educated to the level that you are has similar respect and values. >> reporter: law enforcement sources tell cnn that farook apparently was radicalized and in touch with people being investigated by the fbi. talking by phone and on social media with more than one person being investigated for terrorism. but a law enforcement source says those talks were infrequent. the last one had ban few months ago, not raising any alarms. no red flags either say u.s. and saudi government vehicles when

farook went to saudi arabia. the fbi says the 28-year-old had also travelled to pakistan. the couple's landlord who rented the apartment they would later fill with weapons and bomb-making materials saw no sign this was coming. >> it's beyond my comprehension. because they seemed like such a gentle, mild person. just can't tell a book by its cover. >> reporter: farook's brother-in-law didn't know. >> i have no idea why would he do that. why would he do something like this? i have absolutely no idea. i am in shock myself. >> reporter: a sentiment echoed by patrick baccari. >> who wants to call their 16-year-old kid to tell them that you just survived the attack? many people that didn't that we love. >> reporter: baccari says the multiple bullet fragments will stay, too risky to remove. what also remains confusion.

a man he so closely knew did this, now turning to anger and fear. >> i believe every citizen here should be armed to defend themselves in the case of this happening. but that's not everybody else's belief. i couldn't have defended anybody from the position i was in, even if i was armed. but at least if they tried to come in and get us in that rest room, i'd have some way of maybe protecting the rest of us. >> our kyung lah with that story for us there. and we're hearing some chilling details from one of the first responders of the massacre. lieutenant mike madden of the san bernardino police department was on his way to lunch when he heard the call of an active shooting. listen as he describes what he experienced. >> as we entered into the conference room, the situation

was surreal. it's something we try to prepare for. they talk about sensory overload. they just try to throw everything at you to prepare you for dealing with that. what you're seeing, what you're hearing, what you're smelling. and it was all of that and more. it was unspeakable the carnage that we were seeing, the number of people who were injured. and unfortunately already dead. and the pure panic on the face of those individuals that were still in need and needing to be safe. this was tragedy that i'd never experienced in my career, and that i don't think most officers do. and so we had to deal with it. and we had to help bring them to safety and try to bring some kind of calm to the chaos that was going on. so, you know, just knowing, though, that yeah, we resolved that situation quickly, but there is so much tragedy that is left behind.

there are so in families as we good into the holiday seasons that are now going to have to deal with the tragedy that were left behind by this senseless acts of violence. if that's a little tough to deal with. >> yes. we are heading into the holidays, and people are going to have a tough holiday there in san bernardino. a shattered community takes a step, though, toward healing. just ahead, we'll have a look at the candlelight vigil held to remember those killed in the san bernardino shooting. i have asthma... ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine, i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults

with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. do not take breo more than prescribed. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ask your doctor if 24-hour breo could be a missing piece for you. see if you're eligible for 12 months free at mybreo.com.

their loss is our loss too, for we're all one american family. we lack out for each other. good times and in bad. they should know that all of us care about them this holiday season. they're in our thoughts. they're in our prayers, and we send them our love. >> u.s. president barack obama there speaking earlier on thursday night at the annual tree lighting in washington. and while investigators search for a motive in the shooting

rampage, the community here is already taking some steps to try and heal. hundreds gathered for a candlelight vigil at a stadium in san bernardino on thursday night. the city's mayor davis spoke to the crowd and there were impromptu sites that sprang up throughout churches near the area. muslim leaders condemned this massacre. cnn's paul vercammen joins us live with more on the vigils. paul, you went to one of the vigils earlier. what was the mood like, and who turned up? >> well, it was a mix of townspeople, and there were also a lot of muslims there. and it was fascinating to see the referencverence. they were there and they all wanted to lean on each other's shoulders. people were clearly grieving. other people who were handing out flyers to talk about crisis

counseling. and one mom walking in told me she worries about the children in this town. a lot of trauma, a lot being inflicted on them right now as they try to reckon what happened. at a moment in time, i looked over. there were two muslim women who had a sign, remembering thoughts and prayers for those who were killed. they seemed anxious. these muslim women clearly grieving in the most american of shrines, minor league baseball stadium, john. >> yeah. it's incredible. and paul, also earlier tonight, we're hearing from the first responders, lieutenant madden. he was the first police officer on the scene. and he had some incredible details which he shared about what it was like inside that building and inside that conference room. >> absolutely astounding, john. this is lieutenant madden. he is a 24-year veteran. he goes off to lunch and that

call of mass casualties goes out over a scanner. it must just be bone-chilling. so madden responds. he says he can smell fresh gunpowder everywhere so he fears the shooters are still active. also the sound. he says it's just loud. smoke alarms are going off. sprinklers are going off. and then perhaps the most difficult for him to reckon with, the wailing of the injured. now many people, of course, survived this. and he said it was a strange moment when he was trying to coax them to come out. let's take a listen. >> the initial 50 people did not want to come to us. they were in the back hallway area. and that actually heightened my concern and my fear that potentially the suspects were in that hallway, holding them hostage and waiting for us to enter into the hallway. we had to tell them several times come to us, come to us. and ultimately they did.

and once that first person took the motions forward, it opened the floodgates, and everybody wanted to come and get away from that as quickly as possible. >> and also captured on video, there was another officer who was telling people you're okay, i will take a bullet myself before i let any of you get hit, john. tense moments as all of that unravelled in san bernardino. >> it was incredible. one last point in all of this. we're also hearing from authorities in the last couple of hours, paul, is that it does seem that most of the wounded and most of the dead had some kind of personal connection with the shooters. >> absolutely. direct connections. farook worked for the county in the health department as an inspector. 18 of the 21 people injured also worked for the county. and 12 of the 14 dead worked for the county. clearly farook knew many of these people and worked side by side with a lot of them intimately, john.

>> yes, spraying that room with up to 75 rounds of ammunition, killing 14 people. paul, thank you. earlier i spoke with cnn military analyst colonel rick francona about the shooting and how it went down. >> colonel, let's start with some of the tactics which were used in this attack on wednesday. some of them seem to be isis-like tactics. some of them seem to be very not isis-like tactics. let's start with the ones that are similar. >> well, they're using a large amount of firepower. they're trying to kill as many people as they can very quickly. what was different was the scene almost immediately after doing that. they could have stayed there and killed a lot more people but they chose not to. the question is why did they do that? we have a lot of speculation people are saying they were going to move to another area and attack something else. other pool say maybe they were going to come back around as the first responders came in. but whatever reason that. >> got out of there fast enough.

we know they had something else in mind because they could have gotten on any one of these four interstates and been out of here very quickly. but they chose to remain in the area. >> from an isis point of view, two shooters, one to cover the other? >> well, we've seen isis working in teams. and if we saw what just 457ed in paris, we saw them effectively one covering the other, one reloads while the other is shooting. we don't know if they had that kind of coordination. but the ar-15 is not an intuitive weapon. someone had to train them to do this. from what we're hearing, they were very disciplined in what they were doing. >> one question that a lot of people out there continue to ask, and i find this incredible, the aspect of radicalization. how it is that someone could become radicalized to a point when you're a woman to be able to give up your newborn child, which is what this one did. and as father to give up your child? >> john, we've been going around and around. i've talked to other analysts about this. none of us can reconcile how they got that radicalized. usually you figure this is the

one thing that ameliorates any of these feelings that they would have a family now and they're not going to turn to this radical activity. and yet we see both of them dropping off this child, knowing full well that they were not going see that child again. >> and that thing that that says to me, it was a terrifying level of commitment to this plan. so essentially, they were prepared to give everything. >> it's unbelievele. and you have to say to yourself, how do you fight someone with that much commitment? there is no feeling whatsoever left inside. >> how do we keep that away from the families? >> how are the families going to resolve this? they have no idea. we hear this over and over. we had no idea this was going on. we had no idea this could happen to this family. >> colonel francona speaking to me a short time ago. it's incredible to think that they would -- not only incredible that he killed 14 people, but to give up your own child as well is just beyond

belief. >> absolutely. >> we'll have much more on the killers' possible ties to terror, including the saudi connection. that's next here on cnn.

welcome back to our viewers here in the u.s. and the world. you're watching our special coverage of the mass shooting in california and the fallout. i'm natalie allen at cnn center in atlanta. >> and i'm john vause live in san bernardino, california, where it has just gone 12:30 on a friday morning. law enforcement officials say they have recovered two smashed cell phones from a garbage can

near one of the crime scenes, and they recovered a computer with a missing hard drive. syed rizwan farook and his wife tashfeen malik killed 14 people at a conference center on wednesday. they were killed a few hours later in a shoot-out with police. some details now on the couple. they met in 2013 when farook travelled to saudi arabia. the police have been searching their home not far from here in the town of redlands, where a huge carb of ammunitions as well as explosives. >> the search that took place revealed that there were 12 pipe bomb type devices found in that house or in the garage of that house. there are also hundreds of tools, many of which could be used to construct ieds or pipe bombs. and in addition to that, they had other material.

to 500 .223 rounds that were found at that house. and then there were 2500. and there were additional -- >> all the ammunition that they were able to amass. and legally. the evidence does seem to be mounting that these two attackers, husband and wife, had been planning something like this for some time. and had terrorist ties. cnn's jim chute hoe tow looked into that. >> reporter: signs the deadly california rampage could be tied to terrorism. investigators searching for a motive have found evidence shooting suspect sayeed rizwan farook had been radicalized. he had contact with known terror subjects overseas. >> large armed response here. >> reporter: however, they have not determined definitively whether those extremist beliefs or other workplace grievances or possibly both triggered the mass shooting. >> there was obviously a mission here. we know that.

we do not know why. we don't know if this was a -- this was the intended target or if there was something that triggered him to do this immediately. we just don't need. >> reporter: the shooters, sayeed rizwan farook, a 28-year-old u.s. citizen and his wife tashfeen malik, a 27-year-old u.s. permanent resident were not previously known to the fbi. and were not on a list of potentially radicalized people. however, law enforcement officials say that farook was in contact by phone and social media with international terrorism subjects under fbi investigation. the subjects were not considered high priority. investigators are also examining farook's travel to pakistan and saudi arabia. where it is believed that farook met his wife malik during the annual muslim pilgrimage, the hajj. malik, who was born in pakistan, eventually came to the u.s. on a k-1, or fiancee visa before obtaining a greencard.

farook's brother-in-law says he is stunned by wednesday's bloodshed. >> i have no idea why would he do that. why would he do something like this? i have absolutely no idea. i am in shock myself. >> reporter: police are now working at the couple's home to determine how they managed to amass an enormous arsenal. two assault rifles and two semiautomatic handguns. more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition and high capacity magazines. police also found what they described as a bomb lab in their home with a dozen improvised pipe bombs. in addition to three others rigged to a remote control car left unexploded at the scene. signs that a bigger plot could have been in the works. >> nobody just gets upset at a party, goes home and puts together that kind of an elaborate scheme or plan to come back and do that. so there was some planning that went into this. >> our jim sciutto reporting there. wednesday's mass killers left home a baby, a house full of

explosives, and a confusing sequence of actions. investigators are sifting through information to determine if the motive was indeed terror related and/or related to a workplace dispute. two of our terror analysts talked with don lemon earlier and made parallels between san bernardino and other recent shootings. >> with all the weapons and bombs they have, they could have killed a lot of people. this could have been far worse, which begs the question perhaps they were planning something at some point, but we know there was an altercation at this holiday party. and maybe they brought all these plans forward, changed the plans and launched the attack there instead. i think that's a real pocket. and in fact, over the last year or so, we have seen this sort of mixed motive attacks where you have both this sort of workplace anger and also a terrorist motive. we saw that in oklahoma. in september of 2014 where alton

nolan, a convert to islam got fired from his job at a processing -- food processing center and then went and beheaded one of his female coworkers. he had been lauding on his facebook beheadings on his facebook. we also saw a case in france in june, a fan of isis also he was angry with his boss. he was in a trucking delivery service, and he beheaded his boss, strung his decapitated head of his boss up on the fence of a women plant and sent a selfie to isis in syria so they could circulate it. so we have seen these kind of dual motivations before. >> go ahead, michael. >> another complicating factor of the story is isn't just one guy. i'm not surprised a woman at all. i'm surprised if there was this spontaneous sort of confrontation, he goes home and he says all right, honey, i've decided let's cancel doing the

soccer stadium or the courthouse and let's go blow up my office. and she says okay. and they deposit this small infant child with the grandparent and they go. so it seems odd, doesn't it? there seems to have been some measure of premeditation for this particular target. another point, if they're looking for soft target, and we know that they are, that was the paris attacks, the softest of soft targets are places that you know, places that you have access to. and obviously he was familiar with the internal layout of this building. this could have been the plan all along. we just don't know yet. >> we don't know. but perhaps at some point, somehow we will. president obama tries to reassure the american public after this latest mass shooting. still ahead, hear what he had the say about the possible motive and his fight to change gun laws. our continuing coverage returns in a moment.

watching football together is great... but i think women would agree... huddling with their man after the game is nice too.

the thing is, about half of men over 40 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension. your blood pressure could drop to an unsafe level. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. ask your doctor about viagra. available in single packs.

and welcome back to our viewers. you're watching special coverage of the mass shooting in california and its aftermath. i'm natalie allen at cnn center in atlanta. >> i'm john vause live in san bernardino where investigators are still trying to determine a motive. so far they believe it could possibly be a mix of terrorism and a workplace dispute. but they do believe syed rizwan farook and his wife tashfeen malik had bigger plans. authorities say they found a large stash of weapons and explosives inside the couple's home and their rented suv. law enforcement is also looking at two smashed cell phones found near one of the crime scenes. they recovered a computer with a missing hard drive as well. the fbi has been interviewing the gunman's family as they piece together possible motives for the shooting. and as tom foreman shows us, that's just one in a web of questions facing investigators.

>> let's start at this office gathering where authorities say farook left angry after some sort of dispute and returned in short order with his wife and the shooting began. that's where the first real question arises here. and that is what set him off. was it really an honest dispute or was it some sort of pretext to start the attack? were there any warning signs? was he having any problem that somebody might have been aware of that would have told him this was on the way? and why were the explosives not detonated? authorities tell us they had some bombs of a short here that could have been set off remotely. they were never set off. did they get out of range? did they forget? did they change their mind? we don't know. move to their home about a six minute drive away, and we get a whole new set of questions. the first one being why did they return home? certainly farook had to be aware of the possibility that someone at the office would have recognized him and alerted police. and indeed the police were there. they spotted them. the chase followed. the shoot-out as well. beyond that, when you think

about all of the thousands of rounds of ammunition, all the bomb making equipment authorities have cited in the home, how long were they preparing? that's another important question. and beyond that, if you move to the final stage here, the shoot-out in which they lost their lives here, there is a big question in play here. were they planning something else, either before or after this other event here? why did they act now? and was someone else involved, either on the ground or from afar helping them out? these are all the many, many, many questions that are out there right now, and there aren't so far many answers. >> thanks to tom foreman for that. and brian lemon is the director for the center for the study of hate. we talked to him in terms of a possible motive. let's talk about this working theory that we had that it's some kind of hybrid, religious

ideology mixed in with workplace. >> i testified before congress several weeks ago. and one of the things i talked about is in this new landscape we not only have hierarchical groups but people who are hybrids who have anger and hatred that are a unique mix. what we have are a lot of these folks are unstable people who are an amalgam of different insecurities and instability. and this anger that can be personal can then be wrapped in an ideology and you can have something like we've seen this week. >> and of course this is still a theory. the police are yet to confirm or the fbi has yet to confirm that terrorism was involved but they're working on that from what we hear of the two shooters, it does seem they were living a double life. they went to great extremes to cover up their tracks. also they damaged a hard drive as well.

is it surprising to you that they went to this amount of effort to basically disguise what they're doing? >> well, that would lead me to believe -- look, if this were a workplace violence case, why would they be getting rid of their cell phones or hard drives? and there have been some connections. we've seen overseas travel. we've seen some alleged conversations with other extremists. but the bottom line is the evidence is not conclusive either way. nor is it preexclusive. so we have to keep that book open. >> what we keep hearing from families and friends that no one expected this. no one saw this coming. do you buy that? do you believe that no one out there had any clue what these two people were up to? >> no. >> why not? >> people leave a trail. now i'm not saying moes of their friends or system of their family members. but we find a lot of times a precursor to attacks, not in all

cases, but in a good minority of them is leakage. information gets leaked out. and it would it seems to me that the fact that there was an argument at work, for instance, if it involved ideology, someone else probably heard of it. bottom line this could very well be a hybrid, and we just don't know. but, again, we can't rule anything out. and i think the terrorism investigation angle is still a plausible one until the evidence shows otherwise. >> brian levin there with john earlier. u.s. president barack obama is warning americans not to rush to judgment in this mass shooting, saying there may be mixed motives. what we were just trying to figure out there with our expert. the president also called once again for gun control measures that would limit the mass shootings with so many innocent americans being killed. senior washington correspondent joe johns has more about that.

>> reporter: president obama ordered flags at half san francisco in honor of the san bernardino victims and issued a statement in the oval office surrounded by his national security team. trying to be reassuring, but full of uncertainty after briefs from his attorney general and fbi director. >> at this stage, we do not yet know why this terrible event occurred. >> reporter: and that's the key question still unanswered. what was the motive. >> it is possible that this was terrorist-related. but we don't know. it's also possible that this was workplace related. >> reporter: and then again, with reports the dead suspect syed farook was radicalized and in touch with overseas terror contacts, the administration like law enforcement is still holding out the possibility that other factors were in play. >> there may be mixed motives involved in this. which makes the investigation more complicated. but rest assured that we will

get to the bottom of this. >> reporter: but even with that, caution from across the administration against a rush to judgment. >> he was specifically had in mind that people should not jump to conclusions, that he is not going to jump to conclusions. investigators are not going to jump to conclusions. >> reporter: turning to policy, mr. obama was back to congress on gun laws on what he has called the most frustrating domestic policy fight of his presidency. >> so many americans sometimes feel as if there is nothing we can do about it. it's going to be important for all of us, including our legislators, to see what we the k do. >> reporter: it was the 16th time during his two terms in office that the president was in front of the cameras speaking about the use of firearms and violent crimes. >> the majority of those who died today were children. beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. we're confronting yet another

mass shooting. and today it happened on the military installation. >> reporter: somehow this has become routine. the reporting is routine. my response here at this podium ends up being routine. >> reporter: the white house is considering executive actions to put in place what it calls some limited common sense gun protections. but so far no word on details or the timetable for that. a predictable back and forth in the white house briefing room over measures the white house says would help keep more guns off the streets and whether they would have helped in san bernardino. these are hypotheticals that have been heard in the white house before. joe johns, cnn, the white house. >> president obama's focus on strengthening gun control is in the opinion of some republican leaders neglecting a critical point. gop presidential candidates criticized government leadership thursday, saying an open discussion of possible terror related motives is crucial.

>> we had another event which probably was to the one yesterday, probably was related. radical islamic terrorism. and i'll tell you what. we have a president that refuses to use the term. he refuses to say it. there is something going on with him. >> politically correct doublespeak that comes from the obama administration. has gone beyond the point of ridiculous. >> i am convinced that was a terrorist attack. [ applause ] and the president continues to wring his hands and say we'll see. >> the brutal savagery of islamic terrorism exists. and this president and his former secretary of state cannot call it for what it is. >> in the meantime, san bernardino is taking time to remember those killed in wednesday's massacre. ahead here, a look at one of the

vigils that brought out the city's mayor and hundreds of mourners. the pursuit of healthier. it begins from the second we're born. because, healthier doesn't happen all by itself. it needs to be earned every day. using wellness to keep away illness. and believing a single life can be made better by millions of others. as a health services and innovation company optum powers modern healthcare by connecting every part of it. so while the world keeps searching for healthier

we're here to make healthier happen. if you struggle you're certainly not alone. fortunately, many have found a different kind of medicine that lowers blood sugar. imagine what it would be like to love your numbers. discover once-daily invokana®. it's the #1 prescribed in the newest class of medicines that work with the kidneys to lower a1c. invokana® is used along with diet and exercise to significantly lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. it's a once-daily pill that works around the clock. here's how: the kidneys allow sugar to be absorbed back into the body. invokana® reduces the amount of sugar allowed back in and sends some sugar out through the process of urination. and while it's not for weight loss, it may help you lose weight. invokana® can cause important side effects, including dehydration, which may cause you to feel dizzy, faint, lightheaded,

or weak especially when you stand up. other side effects may include kidney problems, genital yeast infections urinary tract infections, changes in urination, high potassium in the blood, or increases in cholesterol. do not take invokana® if you have severe kidney problems or are on dialysis. stop taking and call your doctor right away if you experience symptoms such as rash, swelling, or difficulty breathing or swallowing. tell your doctor about any medical conditions, medications you are taking, and if you have kidney or liver problems. using invokana® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase risk of low blood sugar. it's time. lower your blood sugar with invokana®. imagine loving your numbers.

there's only one invokana®. ask your doctor about it by name.

investigators here in southern california say they don't yet know the motive in that mass shooting at a holiday party on wednesday, but sources say the gunmen may be radicalized with possible ties to terror suspects. he and his wife killed 14 people before police killed them. >> the investigation is turning up this. a trove of weapons and ammunition, including 21 pipe bombs, even one connected to a remote control toy car. a pair of smashed cell phones found near the crime scene seems to indicate the couple was trying to cover their tracks. you've been watching special coverage here on cnn. i'm natalie allen in atlanta. >> i'm john vause in san bernardino. we will end this hour with some sights and sounds from thursday night's vigils for those who died. ♪ god bless america, land that i love ♪

♪ stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above ♪ >> god loves san bernardino and san bernardino county. he is with us. we can release the fear and allow healing to begin its way with us. we cannot only pray to god to end mistrust, suspicion, and divisiveness, for we know that to live does not have to mean uniformity of thought and faith, but rather we must cherish the teachings and mandates of our individual respective faiths and live by them, but not erogate to

ourselves the truth while we deny to others the legitimacy of their believes. >> we must stand united. we must praise the path of pure light. and we must persevere. it is by god's grace that we have life. there is no other way. and we must take the value of the lesson because of those who have lost their lives who will not go home tonight, will not go home ever again. and by god's grace, we will. ♪

>> the holy koran, the book of god that you just heard recited, it teaches us that the killing of an innocent is like the destruction of all of mankind. humanity was destroyed far too many times yesterday. love for all, hatred for none is our simple message. and we will continue to echo this message to our friends, to our neighbors, to the entire world so the true and beautiful face of islam can overshadow the ways of evil cowards who distort our faith. ♪ ooñóokñ.??????ó

♪ new information this morning into what could have motivated two shoots are to kill 14 people at a california office party. what investigators have found at the crime scene, their ties to terrorists and what those who knew the killers are now saying. good morning and welcome to "recall start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. new information in the mass shooting in southern california that killed 14, injured 21. law enforcement scouring the home and rented car