LOS ANGELES (AP) – Information contained in an encrypted iPhone could help finally answer whether there was a third assailant in the San Bernardino terror attack that killed 14 people, according to court papers filed by the county’s district attorney.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said Friday that the question of a third attacker has nagged investigators despite no supporting evidence.
“We’ve never been able to completely eliminate it,” he said. “We know we have some witnesses that said they thought they saw three … some saw two, some saw one. The majority said two, and the evidence we have up to this point only supports two.”
Still, he said investigators would like to definitively answer the question, and unlocking the phone could help do that.
Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire Dec. 2 at an annual training of his San Bernardino County co-workers. They died hours later in a shootout with police. The 14 people killed marked the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.