this is a special edition of "nightline." "code 3:the heroes of san bernardino." one year later. >> i looked around. i think i'm the first one here. >> the holiday party wounded 22. >> there's people with machine guns shooting up at my work. >> new evidence of the killers' intent. new details about those terrifying minutes from brave first responders. >> i looked down at her and i said, you're not going to die today. >> a grateful survivor saved on the scene. >> i said, please come here, help me. >> the car chase. >> shots fired. >> and shoot-out that ended it out. >> i kept shooting until he

who helped take down the terrorists. >> something wasn't quite right. >> this special edition of "nightline," "code 3:the heroes of san bernardino" will be back

this is a this is a special edition of "nightline." "code 3: the heroes of san bernardino." >> good evening. what you're about to see and hear in our report tonight will

into the terror attack last year in san bernardino, california. new surveillance video, 911 calls, and interviews with first responders shedding new light on the horror and the heroism of that day. here's our chief investigative correspondent brian ross with an abc news exclusive. >> 911. >> yes, hi, there may be a shooting. >> unfortunately that's not a totally >> reporter: but nothing about this day in san bernardino, california, would be routine. >> there's people with machine guns shooting up at my work. i work at inland regional center -- >> we were getting updates it was now possibly shots fired. >> somebody opened the door and started shooting inside the room. >> then it was updated to, man with a gun. then, possibly an active shooter. >> we have an active shooter

have you seen the person with the gun? >> yeah, they're there, dressed in black -- >> listen, ma'am, we're on the way. is he still shooting? >> oh my god! >> reporter: it was one year ago this week that terror struck san bernardino and america saw these faces of evil. a husband and wife whose deadly shooting rampage killed 14 people and injured 22 more. tonight for the first time exclusive new video of the shooters as they prepared the attack. moments before. and the inspiring stories of the men and women who responded, saving lives, protecting their community from further attacks. the heroes of san bernardino. >> 911. >> reporter: those first calls coming from a county conference center in san bernardino. the inland regional center, the irc. county health department employees had gathered for a training session with a holiday lunch to follow. >> inside the room itself at the

was a christmas tree, decorations. >> reporter: at 10:53, one of the county employees, syed faruk, left the room. the shooting began five minutes later. >> did you see people with guns? >> yes. they're wearing all black. >> can you see them anymore? >> no. i'm on the floor. >> okay, stay on the floor. >> is he still shooting? >> i don't know. >> okay. how many rounds did he fire? >> oh my god, a million. >> reporter: madden, administrative officer in an unmarked car, had pulled over in a target paring lot when the radio dispatcher began the calls. >> possible active shooter. >> being primarily a desk jockey the last few years, i had never responded on an actual active shooter. this would have been a first in my 25-year career. >> reporter: madden's calcine is

he was less than a mile away. >> i was driving faster and faster as i was getting closer. i realized, look ad round, i don't see any other cops here, i think i'm the first one here. i quickly got out of the car. because i didn't want to be a sitting duck, if in fact i was out in a vulnerable position. >> lincoln 3 -- >> go ahead. >> i need two more units with me for an entry team. we have an active shooter, we need an entry team now. >> reporter: madden had only a handgun and left his you went in without a vest, just your handgun? >> i'm not the smartest guy ever. >> back door, east side, we have two down -- >> reporter: as the first officers inside, their active shooter training dictated they only focus on finding the shooters still believed to be in the building. >> our goal is the initial entry team, had to be locating them and stopping them. >> most difficult thing i've ever done in my life.

his instructions, find the shooter. meaning, he could not stop to help the wounded. >> i made eye contact with some. and the looks on the victims' faces. you can't describe. knowing that some were alive when you entered -- and when you came back they were no longer living. left a huge burden, almost a burden of guilt that we didn't help them and they didn't survive. >> a year later. >> there's not one day that goes by that i don't think about it. >> reporter: but right behind where other officers that could stop and help. including county probation officer nate scirano. >> when i encountered that first group of people it sucked the air out of my body. with all the noise including the fire alarm going off, i heard a faint voice. "help me, i'm going to die." that was the second time i lost

i couldn't breathe. i looked down. next to my leg, in front of the door to the conference room, is this beautiful young lady, severely wounded. >> i was begging. please help me, please help me. >> she proceeds to tell me she had been shot. very nonchalant, very catatonic-like. she tells me where she had been shot. she tells me sha she die and not to let her die. >> people were moaning around me. i said, please come here, help me. >> i looked at her, i looked up at the conference room. i looked down at her and i said, you're not going to die today. >> reporter: he stayed and amanda gaspert lived. >> with my blood loss, if it had been a little longer, i would have died, i believe. >> reporter: today, still in pain and recovering, she sends this message to that officer and others. >> you are one of god's angels here on earth.

but that day god used all those first responders to get in there and to get us out so that we are still alive today. >> reporter: the shooters in the black suv had made a clean get-away. seen on this traffic surveillance video, right by police cars in the opposite lanes racing to the scene. >> there's a sense of urgency initially, not knowing are there more out there? are there follow-on attacks being planned? >> suspicious vehicle that matches the suspect -- is there a potential that these suspects are going to continue driving around the city of san bernardino? or move to another location? >> reporter: as rescue teams rush to save the wounded that day in san bernardino -- >> we got a couple bleeding out, we need to get them out of here right now. >> reporter: officers had to also question them for information about who was responsible and right away one employee provided a solid lead. >> he said, i think maybe you need to look at this person. and he gave us the name syed

abc news, posed with fellow health department workers in front of a christmas tree and then abruptly left, just before the shooting started. >> he was very irritated and upset. >> reporter: the name faruk was fed back to san bernardino police headquarters and donnie rusfanca, the department's veteran analyst who put the name in law enforcement data bases. >> i didn't see anything initially. >> 911 emergency. >> reporter: moments later a 911 call that would be the turning been watching the tv and there was a black suv that turned in front of me onto seventh street. >> there was such a sudden abrupt move that i was thinking, hm. this is a little unusual for a vehicle coming from utah. >> reporter: 61-year-old stewart boden, computer programmer for the county, wasn't aware police were looking for a black suv

front of him at this intersection. >> i had noticed the license plate. and as they were waiting to turn here, because there was one vehicle coming, i go, i think i need to commit that license plate to memory. >> because? >> because something wasn't quite right. >> the suspects perhaps left the scene in a black suv -- >> when i got home i turned on the tv. something said, the suspe i saw something, i needed to say something. >> about 20, 25 minutes ago, and i didn't know anything about any suv at that time. >> a black suv? >> yeah. and i do have a good memory. utah license plate. >> okay. >> x52-3ry. >> that was the turning point in the investigation. >> reporter: the plate number came back to the enterprise car

faruk. >> my hands started to shake at that point. i thought, wow, we really don't have just a person of interest, we actually now have a suspect. we need to locate this person. >> reporter: as police and the fbi would later learn, faruk and his wife, a pakistani he married overseas and brought to the u.s., had been secretly planning the attack for a long time. now thanks to the call from stewart bodien, the memory man, donnie rusfanken officers, her friends, into a dangerous confrontation. >> this person had already done such harm and damage to the citizens of the city. to know that, yes, i found a legitimate address, a good address -- but what was next? what was around the corner? >> they're putting vests on inside, shots fired, shots fired. >> reporter: when we come back. c plaque psoriasis made a simple trip to the grocery store anything but simple. so i had an important conversation with my dermatologist about humira.

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welcome welcome back. thanks to a good samaritan with an extraordinary memory, police in san bernardino have the license plate of the killers who carried out one of the deadliest terror attacks in american history. now they have to find and them. once again tonight here's brian ross. >> reporter: this surveillance video obtained by abc news shows syed faruk at a california firing range just a few days before the attack. practicing with the weapons he and his wife would use to kill 14 people and wound 22 more. >> they certainly were equipped for it, they were armed for it. they had high-powered weaponry. they had lots of ammunition. they had bombs at their

the couple to attack that day. outrage over christmas. expressed in an e-mail to faruk from his wife, later discovered by the fbi. >> she had essentially made the statement in an online account that she didn't think a muslim should have to participate in a nonmuslim holiday event. you could clearly see from pictures inside that room there was somewhat of a festive atmosphere. it had those christmas overtones to it. that is really one of the very few pieces of potential evidence that we have tt point to and say that possibly is a motive in this case. >> reporter: inspired, the fbi agent in charge says, by isis. >> after the shooting you add the wife who went on social media and declared her allegiance to al baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliphate leader. >> reporter: ironically agents discovered the couple wasn't even sure of baghdadi's name until the morning of the shooting.

there was online research done with an account associated with them where they were researching the leader of the islamic state. maybe they didn't truly know who it was so they had to have the name to actually pledge their allegiance, so to speak. >> reporter: three hours after the shooting, an undercover san bernardino police team arrived at the home address for faruk. they saw him pull out in his black suv. >> just in time. had we been several seconds later we probably would have missed him. >> reporter: shulky, undercover narcotics detective in an unmarked consider, led the team following the suv with officers behind him in an unmarked police van. >> like we do with a drug suspect, we don't want them to know we're following them. >> reporter: to their surprise, it appeared faruk was heading right back to the scene of the shooting at the irc. >> they came back by the crime scene a number of times. they were very, very close to our crime scene several times

chief jared bugwan believes they were essentially circling the scene for hours after the attack. >> came very, very close to the inland regional center a number of times. >> reporter: apparently trying again and again to remotely detonate three pipe bombs they had left behind that had gone unnoticed. >> you can presume they had the detonator in their car. that potentially it was did try to get close enough to detonate that device still. >> reporter: before they could this time, two marked squad cars pulled in behind them with lights and sirens. [ sirens ] >> reporter: sergeant andy capps of redlands police department was just behind the suspects. >> as we drove when they took off, i saw them the passenger to the driver passing articles or items to each other inside the car. >> looks like they're putting vests on inside. shots fired, shots fired.

>> reporter: deputy sean wallen of the san bernardino sheriff's office was the target. his patrol car was just 25 yards from the suv. >> driving like this. >> your knee was steering? >> steering with my left knee. gas with the right knee. talking with my left hand. pulling my rifle out of the passenger seat. the suspect vehicle suddenly stopped, slamming on his brakes. they're shoot they're shooting at u crossfire. crossfire. one's in the trunk. >> i got it. >> ran to the back portion right here. shooting this way. towards the male suspect. and i was hunkered down again like this. shooting back at them. >> reporter: faruk made a break from the vehicle to get even closer to deputy wallen, firing as he ran. >> either trying to get to the

for whatever. >> to come up on you? >> yeah, he was about probably 50 feet away. then kept shooting again. >> reporter: the officer moved in to protect wallen. >> i remember yelling at wall.to come back. that's when i felt the bullet hit me in my leg. my leg kind of gave out. i remember stumbling and fell into the grass over there at the curb. >> we have one officer down. >> copy. >> i didn't see blood pouring out of my leg like there was femoral hit or anything. okay, got to keep fighting, i'm not going down like this. so i pushed myself back into the street and kept shooting at the suv. >> even after being hit? >> yeah. >> reporter: and he continued firing at faruk, now down on the street. >> i kept shooting until he stopped moving. >> reporter: faruk's wife malik was still firing from the back of the black suv. >> look at all the bullet holes in the windshield. >> she didn't stop shooting until she was stopped.

rounds. >> reporter: not certain she was dead, and whether there were explosives rigged to go off inside the car, police sent in a special bomb squad vehicle to pull her out. and it was only then that authorities realized it was a woman. faruk's wife, the mother of an infant child left behind who is now in foster care. >> it certainly surprised me that you'd have a woman with a 6-month-old baby who could do something like this. that's very hard for us to >> reporter: four hours and 17 minutes after the first shots were fired, the two shooters, the two terrorists, were dead. they had killed 14 people and injured 22 others and left permanent scars in the lives of hundreds more. still evident now one year later. for "nightline," brian ross, san bernardino, california. >> our thanks to brian ross for his extraordinary reporting

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sadly was the beginning of a year that saw terror attacks in brussels, orlando, chelsea in new york city, and now ohio state university. our thanks to brian ross and his entire team and our thanks to you for watching abc news tonight. as always we're online 24/7 at abcnews.com and on our "nightline" facebook page. thanks again for watching and good night. >> all >> all new oz. america's weatherman al roker. dr. oz: i haven't seen you walk without a limp in forever.