State of emergency declared in San Bernardino after shooting

Los Angeles, Dec 19: California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County following the December 2 attack there that killed 14 people.

The bureaucratic move lets the state allocate funds to the county health department "until the county is able to resume normal staffing levels," and suspends fees on things like "copies of certificates of death records by any person who suffered a loss of a family member due to the terrorist attack."

The shooters targeted a San Bernardino County health department holiday party. Declarations like this are routine in cases of natural disaster.

The San Bernardino rampage was carried out by US-born Syed Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik. The radicalized Muslim couple are believed to have been inspired, if not directed, by the Islamic State terror group. In the declaration, Brown mentions that 26 people were wounded in the attack. Until now officials had only mentioned 22 wounded.

AFP