The family of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook have claimed that he had been teased by colleagues about his long Islamic beard hours after it emerged that he had also clashed with a Jewish co-worker over religion weeks before he and his wife killed 14 at a holiday party.
While the exact motive for the massacre remains unclear, lawyers for the Farook family said the gunman had been subject to a series of disparaging comments about his traditional Muslim appearance.
But they insisted that the health inspector had brushed off the remarks and they remained at a loss to explain why he mercilessly gunned down 14 people and wounded 21, the majority his former co-workers, on Wednesday.
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The California Department of Motor Vehicles released an image of Syed Farook's driver's license that was issued to him in July 2013
Syed Rizwan Farook (pictured), 28, who is U.S.-born, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, were killed in a gun battle with police after the mass shooting at a government holiday party held at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino
This is a photo of Farook from his old online profile on the dating website SingleMuslim.com, according to reporting by ABC
Their comments came hours after it emerged that Farook had recently got into a heated argument with colleague Nicholas Thalasinos, a Messianic Jew, who was named as one of his victims.
Thalasinos, a county restaurant inspector, was said to regularly discuss politics and religion with Farook.
Colleague Kuuleme Stephen said that when she had called Thalasinos at work he told her he was having a heated discussion with Farook about Islam who had told him Islam was a peaceful religion and that Americans do not understand Islam.
Thalasinos was known to be passionate about pro-Israel causes and regularly ranted about Islam on Facebook.
On September 11th, 2013, alongside a photo of a shirtless victim plummeting to his death from the burning World Trade Center, Mr Thalasinos posted: 'On behalf of this guy
You can stick your Million Muslim March up your asses'.
In one of his final status updates on Tuesday, Thalasinos responded to an anti-Semitic tirade allegedly penned by an apparent Muslim living in Ukraine, who railed against Jews and Israel.
Anyway my new hobby appears to be BLOCKING PAGAN ANTISEMITIC TROGLODYTES so I'm just passing this along to warn others, was Thalasinos' reply.
Again, it is unclear if the dispute played a part in the massacre.
Syed Farook's lawyers say 'he was living the American dream'