LOS ANGELES (AP) – In 2005, Enrique Marquez Jr. moved to Riverside, California. He’d soon meet a new friend, living in the house next door, Syed Rizwan Farook.
An FBI affidavit released Thursday provides a close-up look of the fateful friendship that would bind the two young men, that within a few years would turn to talk of radical Islamic ideology and plans, never carried out, to attack a college they had attended or slaughter motorists on a nearby highway.
Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, died Dec. 2 in a gunfight with police after killing 14 of his co-workers at a holiday gathering. The 24-year-old Marquez was charged Thursday with terrorism-related counts, including illegally purchasing two assault rifles used in the attack. Prosecutors said there is currently no evidence Marquez participated in the Dec. 2 attack or had advance knowledge of it.
Here are the emerging details of their relationship:
Proximity brought them together – Marquez moved in next door. A federal criminal complaint said the men met in Farook’s garage – he was known to tinker with cars. By late that year, Farook was discussing Islam with the younger Marquez, and soon Marquez visited a mosque and was praying more frequently at Farook’s home.