San Bernardino school officials tell KPCC that Syed Rizwan Farook visited eleven school sites to inspect cafeterias through his job as a San Bernardino County health inspector.
Officials found out less than a day after the shootings that Farook had been at a high school campus two months before the shootings that left 14 people dead and 21 wounded.
Linda Bardere, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino City Unified School District said the school district didn’t want to take any chances, so officials asked the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians for help because school police were busy at the shooting site.
“San Manuel did allow their bomb sniffing canine unit to come out to Arroyo Valley High School and clear the kitchen and also clear the pool areas where Mr. Farook had visited just a month or two before,” Bardere said.
After nothing suspicious was found officials pulled records for other school cafeteria inspections carried out by Farook and found that he had visited ten other the campuses to inspect cafeterias.
“Because this was such an unexpected attack at the Inland Regional Center, we didn’t want to take any chances, we just wanted to make sure that our school sites were safe and they indeed are,” Bardere said.
After Wednesday’s deadly shooting San Bernardino school officials put all school buildings on lockdown. Bardere said Dominguez Elementary School found itself on lockdown longest because there was shooting between police and the shooters nearby.
