LOS ANGELES (CN) - A responding officer Thursday evening described the "surreal" carnage he witnessed after Wednesday's mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, but the motive for the attack remains unclear.
San Bernardino Police Department Commander Mike Madden was the first officer to arrive at the scene. He described the horrific and surreal scene that he encountered when he entered the social services building and came to the entrance of the conference room where 70 to 80 guests had been present for a county health department holiday party.
"Although we're trained for it, it's something that you're never actually prepared for," an emotional Madden said. "This was actually happening. This was a real event."
Madden said his goal was to enter the building and engage an "active shooter," and said that he wanted to prevent more fatalities.
The commander was part of four-member tactical team that entered the building. When they reached the east side of the building and entered, Madden said it was "clear that the reports were true."
"There were victims that were obviously deceased outside the conference room," Madden said.
When they entered the conference room "the situation was surreal," he said.
"It was unspeakable the carnage that we were seeing," Madden said, describing the "pure panic" on the faces of those who had survived the attack.
The team went farther into the building and had to pass people they knew were in need of help because they wanted to locate the shooters, he said.
More tactical teams arrived and searched the building. Madden said he could smell fresh gunpowder, making him believe that there were still active shooters. He said the "moans and the wails" in the room and fire sprinklers going off added to the sense of chaos.
The "panic was obvious and apparent," Madden said.
Authorities said at the press conference that out of 91 invited guests to the party, 75 to 80 people attended. Of the 21 injured, 18 were county employees and 12 of the 14 killed were county employees, officials said.
"We have to be on our guard. We can't take anything for granted," Gov. Jerry Brown said at the press conference. "We are going to go as far as we have to to make sure that public safety is protected."
Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, killed 14 and injured 21 others in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, three years ago.
The suspects died after police tailed their rented black SUV from their apartment and then engaged in a dramatic shootout in a residential neighborhood.
Afterward, an armored truck could be seen approaching the bullet-riddled SUV with an extended, armored, forward platform from which officers used a large hook to pull a woman's body from the cab. Her companion's body was lying in the road next to the SUV, with his assault rifle nearby.
The couple, who were dressed in tactical clothing, fired 76 rounds at police during the final confrontation while officers fired 360 rounds. The couple had amassed 2,500 assault rifle rounds, 2,000 9 mm rounds and 12 pipe bombs at their Redlands home.
They left a remote-controlled bomb at the center.
"It's entirely possible they planned other attacks," Chief Jarrod Burguan has said.
