Prosecutors: Friend to plead guilty to aiding San Bernardino gunman

LOS ANGELES, Feb 14 (Reuters) - A California man accused of buying assault-style rifles used by a married couple to massacre 14 people in San Bernardino in 2015 has agreed to plead guilty to providing material support to terrorists, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Enrique Marquez, 25, will plead guilty to conspiring with Syed Rizwan Farook in 2011 and 2012 to attack a community college and commuters on a Southern California freeway, prosecutors said.

RELATED: See images from the terror attack

Marquez, a friend and former neighbor of Farook, has also agreed to plead guilty to making false statements about his purchase of two assault rifles used in the shooting rampage at the San Bernardino Inland Regional Center.

Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, opened fire at a holiday gathering of Farook's co-workers on Dec. 2, 2015, killing 14 people and wounding 22.

Farook, the U.S.-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and Malik, a Pakistani native he married in Saudi Arabia in 2014, died in a shootout with police four hours after the massacre.

Authorities have said the couple were inspired by Islamist extremism. It was one of the deadliest attacks by militants in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)