San Bernardino County Employees Return to Work

ByEMILY SHAPIRO ABCNews logo
Monday, December 7, 2015

San Bernardino County employees are returning to work today as the county beefs up security measures following the deadly attack at the Inland Regional Center last Wednesday, where county employees were attending a training event and holiday party.

An increased security presence will be seen at "public health buildings throughout San Bernardino," according to a statement released by San Bernardino County officials. Security will be increased from level 1 to level 3 -- which includes armed guards, officials said.

But despite the security increase, San Bernardino Board of Supervisor Josie Gonzales said today, "No act of terrorism anywhere ... will invest fear."

"All of us in San Bernardino County are one family," she said. "And we stand together united. We know that our county employees are valuable and that we have a mission together to come as a strong community and be able to supersede any act of terrorism."

The employees of the San Bernardino Department of Public Health, where suspected gunman Syed Farook was an employee, will return to work next Monday.

In the emergency room last Wednesday, there were 40 to 50 doctors in multiple trauma teams. When the shooting started, they were bracing for the number of victims to be in the hundreds.

"None of the 14 who perished had a chance," said one of the doctors who treated the victims. "That's what really bothers me most."

Another doctor, on the verge of tears, said events like this "tests your faith in humanity."

Trudy Raymundo, director of the Department of Public Health, was at the training event the morning of the shooting. She said today, "When we arrived, they were upbeat. They were happy. They were learning from each other."

"This is a very tight close knit group...they are beyond coworkers," she added. "They are friends and they are family."

Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, died in a shootout with police just hours after they shot dozens of Farook's colleagues using two handguns, which Farook had legally purchased, and two "assault-style" weapons, believed to have been purchased by Farook's former neighbor, Enrique Marquez, law enforcement sources told ABC News. Marquez is not currently considered a suspect in the shooting, the FBI said Friday.

The shooting left 14 people dead and 21 injured.

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