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Tayyeep Bin Ardogan: Hoax Misidentifies Second San Bernardino Shooting Suspect As Qatar Citizen

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 16:04 PST, Dec 2, 2015

Tayyeep Bin Ardogan was briefly identified as the second suspect in the San Bernardino shooting that left 14 people dead and 17 injured, but reports later identified that as a hoax and police have not yet released a second suspect’s identity.

Law enforcement officials had already identified Syed Farook as one of the suspects who walked into a public building in the California city and opened fire, and later sources identified Ardogan as the person who also took part in the massacre.

“Two separate law enforcement sources said one of the suspected gunmen was an American citizen, but declined to identify them,” according to the report from the Los Angeles Times (via the Atlanta Journal Constitution).

Tayyeep Bin Ardogan was initially identified as a a 28-year-old Qatari citizen, with several news outlets including Fox News claiming that the suspect’s identity was confirmed by San Bernardino police. But later reports indicate that no such identification was made and that the report was a hoax.

The name of the alleged suspect was very close to Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, the president of Turkey.

Details about Syed Farook are still emerging in the wake of the deadly shooting. Farook was listed as a municipal employee, serving as an environmental health specialist in San Bernardino County and later as a business tax representative for the state of California.

The relationship between Farook and the other suspects was not immediately clear.

Witnesses and survivors said the gunmen walked into the building heavily armed, with long rifles and handguns and wearing what may have been body armor. The Los Angeles Times recounted an account of the shooting from witness Melinda Rivas.

“Just before noon, Melinda Rivas heard a scream from a coworker. ‘Oh my God! There’s a shooting! There’s a lady who got shot!’

“Rivas, a social worker at Inland Regional Center, recalled her coworker saying. Rivas, 51, works on the third floor of Building 2 at the Inland Regional Center. She said her coworker saw a woman who had been shot on the sidewalk between Buildings 2 and 3.

“Rivas and her colleagues rushed into a conference room away from exterior windows, and barricaded the door with all the furniture they could find — desks, chairs, tables. They sat on the floor, trying to stay low.”

Reports indicate that the shooting may have arisen from an argument Syed Farook may have had with a co-worker from the San Bernardino County public health department. Reports indicate that his office Christmas party was being held at the site of the shooting.

Griselda Reisinger, a former co-worker of Farook, said she remembered him as a quiet man who recently returned from paternity leave after having a child.

But it is not clear if Wednesday’s mass shooting was the result of a workplace squabble or if it had been a planned act. Officials also would not say if terrorism could have been a motive.

Investigators are now looking into Syed Farook and the other possible suspects, with reports that a SWAT team had entered the home where the suspects lived.

While the other suspects in the San Bernardino shooting have not yet been identified, a law enforcement source told NBC News that one may have been the brother of Syed Farook.

[AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes]

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