San Bernardino declares state of emergency after shooting, move allows California to allocate funds

People paying their respects at a makeshift shrine near the scene of the shootings in San Bernardino, California. PHOTO: AFP

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County Friday (Dec 18) following the Dec 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 radicalised Muslim couple are believed to have been inspired, if not directed, by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group.

In the declaration, Brown mentions that 26 people were wounded in the attack. Until now officials had only mentioned 22 wounded.

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