Records: Man to plead guilty to aiding San Bernardino attack
LOS ANGELES — The only man to be criminally charged in the San Bernardino terror attack has agreed to plead guilty to providing the high-powered rifles used to kill 14 people and injure nearly two dozen others and to plotting a mass killing with the gunman that they never carried out, court records say.
Enrique Marquez Jr., 25, of Riverside, admitted in a plea agreement released Tuesday that he bought the assault rifles used by Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, in the Dec. 2, 2015, attack at a public health agency. Farook and Malik were later killed in a gunfight with authorities.
Marquez also agreed to plead guilty to making false statements when he purchased the firearms used in the attack.
Prosecutors said Marquez acknowledged being a “straw buyer” when he purchased two AR-15 rifles from a sporting goods store that were used in the attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Prosecutors have said Marquez agreed to buy the weapons because the attackers feared Farook’s Middle Eastern appearance might arouse suspicion. Prosecutors said there is no evidence Marquez participated in the San Bernardino massacre or had advance knowledge of it.