HOOVER, Ala. (AP) – Anita Jefferson didn’t know much about San Bernardino, California, before the apparent terror attack there. The West Coast town is nearly the exact same size as her hometown of Birmingham and hardly a high-profile target like New York or Paris.
Now, she finds herself worried about the possibility of an attack at a location like the suburban shopping mall where Jefferson works at a food kiosk for the Christmas shopping season. A place that’s public but, unlike stadiums and other venues, has relatively lax security.
“You’d think they’d go to a larger place, but a smaller place may be easier,” said Jefferson, 62.
The FBI announced Friday that it was investigating the mass shooting that left 14 people dead at a Christmas party as an act of terrorism. The couple who carried out the shooting, Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, died in a gunbattle with police.
If there could be a terror attack at a social services center in San Bernardino, why not suburban Alabama, or downtown Louisville, Kentucky? The bloody massacre made it all too obvious for some Americans that big cities with marquee names aren’t the only potential targets.