In a bizarre move, media let inside apartment of San Bernardino shooting suspects
While the case is still under investigation, media allowed to rummage through the crime scene
On Friday, the home of the couple suspected for the San Bernardino shootings was opened to the media to rummage through. A move that brought on criticism from within the American media itself, once the police had cleared the evidence from the house, the landlord reportedly opened the house to allow the media in. The video above has a CNN reporter updating from within the suspects home, as several other media people can be seen swarming inside the house. The anchor Anderson Cooper comments on this being "bizarre" even while continuing to air the "first look".
The Atlantic reporting on this coverage called it "disturbing." Adding, "On live national television, reporters sifted through the remains of the lives of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. They picked over children’s toys. They held up photos, speculating about whether the woman depicted in one might be Malik. They displayed Social Security cards and driver’s licenses with readily identifiable information—and not just for the deceased suspects."
The couple, it must be noted, are suspects and their role in the shooting has not yet been confirmed.
"As if the journalistic irresponsibility of baselessly speculating while holding up images of potentially innocent people on TV wasn’t bad enough, it beggars belief the scene wasn’t taped off and guarded. Reporters were given free rein to walk through an apartment that is an important part of the investigation, and they were allowed to handle what one would expect to be evidence. Police didn’t appear to know the media tour was going on," The Atlantic report further states.
Some journalists took to Twitter to express anger against this move. And while reporters from within the suspects' home said the landlord let them in, the landlord himself claims the media rushed in.
On Wednesday the US witnessed a mass shooting in California's San Bernardino city which killed 14 people and injured 21. The suspects, a couple, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik were shot dead by the police following a car chase.The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking at this case as one of terrorism, The New York Times reported. And the police has found more incriminating evidence against the couple in their rented home in the form of pipe bombs and equipment to make more bombs.
The couple are also suspected of having links with the Islamic State, that carried out an attack on Paris in November.
Watch this law enforcement analyst's dumbfounded reaction to the TV reports: