Mistaken Identities — There Are Two Syed R. Farooks

Something was bothering me. When The Daily Beast published the identity of the first suspect, they reported it as Syed Raheel Farook. Other sources reported the same name or Syed R. Farook or simply Syed Farook (or some alternate spelling) but one of the sites I came across a little later (and now I can't remember which) had the name as Syed Rizwan Farook. I searched for Syed Rizwan Farook at the time and didn't find any other hits so I wrote it off as mistake on the author's part. I'm not sure where the reporting of the name as Syed Raheel Farook started — quite possibly with NBC News who was the first to confirm from an unnamed "law enforcement source" the earlier speculation which had been based on the name being overheard on the police band — but The Daily Beast also had the first picture and some additional details so it seemed they had ultimately scooped the rest of the Internet.

Within a very short time, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people were repeating the name Syed Raheel Farook and searching social media for his profiles and making matter-of-fact statements that "he goes by Raheel." Before the Raheel Facebook profile was shutdown, people grabbed more pictures and of course, they matched the picture the Daily Beast had posted with their story (and which had been re-published by other news sites/news blogs).

More than one source also included a link to a LinkedIn profile for Raheel Farook and information from it. Looking over the profile, something seemed off because the current job description didn't really fit with what was being reported ( "environmental specialist") but the employer seemed like a match when I skimmed over it. Also the education (Bachelor's in Business Administration and Accounting) didn't seem to quite fit but then again, he was being referred to alternately as an "environmental specialist" and a "health inspector" so things were considerably muddled and making matters worse, within a few minutes, the LinkedIn profile was also blocked. So once more, I stupidly ignored the discrepancies.

Well it turns out that there is more than one Syed R. Farook and that's not all. Here's the correction from The Daily Beast:

Suspect ID’d in San Bernardino Massacre as Syed Farook

CORRECTION 12/3/15 1:41 A.M. An earlier version of this story identified one of the San Bernardino shooters as Syed Raheel Farook, not Syed Rizwan Farook. We sincerely regret the error.

During the day on Wednesday, there was confusion about who, exactly, was being named as a suspect in the shooting. There are two Syed Farooks in the greater San Bernardino area. According to a LinkedIn profile, a Syed Raheel Farook was employeed as a business taxes representative for the California State Board of Equalization. This man—who went by his middle name, Raheel—is a 2003 graduate La Sierra High School and most recently studied finance at California State University Fullerton until 2013.

A public records search indicates that Syed Raheel Farook’s mother lives at the Redlands home raided by the police on Wednesday.

However, it is Syed Rizwan Farook, an environmental health specialist at the San Bernardino County Health Department, whom the police named Wednesday night as the shooting suspect.

Adding to the confusion is that the two Syed R. Farooks are apparently brothers.

During the Wednesday press conference, Farhan Khan and Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Los Angeles, were shown what was purported to be picture of the suspect.

“No. That’s not him,” Ayloush said. "That’s the other brother. That’s the older brother, that’s Raheel.”

In other words, Rizwan was the suspected shooter.

That wasn't clear ealier on Wednesday, when The Daily Beast knocked on the door of a home in Corona that belonged to Sayed Raheel Farook, according to public records. The Daily Beast was at the door met by a man who said, “My name is Farook.” When asked if he knew Syed, the man said, “Of course I know him, but I have nothing to say.” When asked about Syed being named as a suspect, he said, “I have nothing to say.”

As somebody who considers himself detail oriented and a person who strives for accuracy — and loathes making a fool of himself — I feel like quite the asshole now. I posted two of the pictures in the main thread hours ago and I also repeated details from the wrong LinkedIn profile.

Ugh.

I suppose I can take some solace in knowing that I was far from alone and that many "professional" journalists and scores of overly trusted news bloggers had also made asses of themselves in their haste to put out new information at the speed of Twitter. So now I'm going to turn off the TV, close a bunch of browser tabs and get some sleep (excuse my lack of proper proofreading)!

Time to let the dust settle.

I will uphold you this time. (I know , unusual isnt it) . You were only posting from what information that you had from certain news sources that had not even verified the name yet. You are absolved of any wrong-doing , at least in my book .I actually saw the original name from multiple sources . Perhaps all have given a retraction by now. I would have not liked to have been in the original one's shoes though.

Peace and ferrrrgetttt about it....

Now , with the S&F I put on this thread due to me being misled as well , our moment of truce ends. Back to BAU.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Kudos to you for wearing it mate. Good thread

Yes it looks like Google is blocking any remote links to the name Syed Raheel Farook or Raheel Farook, as well as social media sites.

Dare I ask? The names appear somewhat muslim. The news says it was a wife and husband who have a 6 month old child. A 3rd person (male) has been arrested. Is this ISIS connected? If it is then........................................

originally posted by: RP2SticksOfDynamite
Dare I ask? The names appear somewhat muslim. The news says it was a wife and husband who have a 6 month old child. A 3rd person (male) has been arrested. Is this ISIS connected? If it is then........................................

What makes a name Muslim? The name is Arabic that doesn't automatically mean Muslim he could just as easily be a Christian.

Yeah this was bugging me a bit last night too in the other big thread. There were even more variations of spelling and even first name/last name inversions out there I was too tired to catch.

Getting spelling or name not quite right is common, especially when people are only hearing the names on scanners or in verbal news reports.

Starting to post other peoples' pictures and histories before they're sure they do have it right should not be common.



Seems they got the right one now, though.

originally posted by: buster2010

originally posted by: RP2SticksOfDynamite
Dare I ask? The names appear somewhat muslim. The news says it was a wife and husband who have a 6 month old child. A 3rd person (male) has been arrested. Is this ISIS connected? If it is then........................................

What makes a name Muslim? The name is Arabic that doesn't automatically mean Muslim he could just as easily be a Christian.

Yes Arabic but predominantly likely to be muslim. So is it ISIS or ISIS sympathizers? Cell?

a reply to: theantediluvian

This was an honest mistake by all involved. It could have happened to anyone, but I do feel sorry for the guy that was identified in error. His life got turned upside down because someone else was an a-hole.

I actually have a friend that has the same name as a high profile child molester and they lived in the same suburb of Cincinnati. He had to change everything...including their phone number to his wife's name because he was getting calls and mail from people who had something to say to the other guy.

It was sort of funny, but it was also pretty awful at the same time.

originally posted by: buster2010

originally posted by: RP2SticksOfDynamite
Dare I ask? The names appear somewhat muslim. The news says it was a wife and husband who have a 6 month old child. A 3rd person (male) has been arrested. Is this ISIS connected? If it is then........................................

What makes a name Muslim? The name is Arabic that doesn't automatically mean Muslim he could just as easily be a Christian.

One of my few stars for you . Any variation of that spelling could also be African.

a reply to: RP2SticksOfDynamite

gma.yahoo.com...

“I try to live as a good Muslim,” Farook writes. “Looking for a girl who has the same outlook, wear hijab, but live the life to the fullest."

He was Muslim. And had been to Saudi Arabia. But I havent seen any connection to isis. www.latimes.com... tory.html


Information regarding Isis connection: www.ibtimes.com...