NBC News reporter Kerry Sanders took MSNBC viewers on an intimate tour Friday of the apartment of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the deceased and suspected killers of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in one of the stranger moments in cable news history.
For more than ten minutes, Sanders walked around various rooms in the apartment, which was packed with media, while onlookers wondered why an obvious crime scene would be open to the press. Apparently, so did the FBI.
Asked FBI Los Angeles if suspects' apartment now open to the media/public: "I don’t believe so…it is still an ongoing investigation."
— Brian Ries (@moneyries) December 4, 2015
CNN also entered the apartment in a scene The Atlantic called "baffling."
With host Andrea Mitchell occasionally interjecting with questions and commentary, Sanders showed viewers such possessions as an LG computer, Farook's check from Chase Bank, a teddy bear, and a walk-in closet that included a copy of Goodnight Stories from the Quran, "a book that they may have read to their six-month-old."
Sanders and Mitchell told viewers that they had clearance to be inside from the landlord, that the FBI had "presumably" cleared out all "useful evidence," and it wasn't like he was "touching things that I shouldn't be touching."
Sanders also combed through pictures on a bathroom sink while he and Mitchell speculated on who the people in them might be. At one point, Mitchell admonished him and the cameraman to not film a picture of children. When Sanders entered a bedroom nearby, the camera zoomed in on the ID and social security card of Farook's mother.
MSNBC just showed the driver's license of Syed Farook's mother, Rafia Farook, and her SS# in a live broadcast — Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold) December 4, 2015
Screenshots from MSNBC. I added the redout pic.twitter.com/Ttu3zJ0Fjj
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) December 4, 2015
The landlord of the building told a CBS affiliate that he didn't actually give permission, but instead "they rushed" the scene.
Landlord says he didn't allow media into San Bernardino shooters' apartment: 'they rushed' https://t.co/2CfqNG6voO pic.twitter.com/HlWPUEeJHY
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) December 4, 2015