Two teenage gunmen opened fire on Monday at the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing a security guard and two men outside the mosque before apparently taking their own lives, police said. Authorities said all children at the mosque’s day school were safe.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said local police and the FBI were investigating the attack on the county’s largest mosque as a hate crime. The suspects, aged 17 and 18, were found dead in a vehicle a short distance from the mosque, apparently from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, reports Reuters.
The chief said the mother of one suspect had contacted police about two hours earlier, reporting her son as suicidal and that he had taken three firearms and her vehicle. She said he was accompanied by a friend, both dressed in camouflage. Police began tracking the pair and dispatched patrols to a nearby mall and the son’s high school when calls came in about the mosque shooting.
Wahl said authorities were not aware of any specific threat to the mosque prior to the incident, describing the situation as “generalised hate rhetoric” combined with the runaway teenagers and their weapons that prompted an elevated threat assessment. A note found by the mother has not been publicly disclosed.
The attack occurred at around 11:40am PDT (1840 GMT) in the Clairemont district, a residential-commercial area of the city. Wahl said between 50 and 100 officers responded within four minutes to the first “active shooter” call. Police did not fire any shots during the incident.
The Islamic Center houses Bright Horizon Academy, a school providing Islamic education. The three victims outside the mosque were affiliated with the centre, and officials credited the security guard with likely preventing further casualties. During the response, shots were also fired at a landscaper a few blocks away; the man was unharmed, possibly due to a protective helmet, Wahl said. Investigators are treating the incidents as connected.
Taha Hassane, imam and director of the mosque, said: “We have never experienced a tragedy like this before. It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship.”
Monday’s shooting comes just before the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Authorities have not publicly suggested a precise motive or precipitating incident for the violence.
Video footage from local news outlets showed dozens of patrol cars on a nearby highway bridge, armed officers in tactical gear on the mosque roof, and police moving through the complex with rifles. The rapid law enforcement response limited the threat, authorities said.
The attack highlights growing concern among Muslim and Jewish communities in the United States amid heightened global tensions, following US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran in February and Iran’s subsequent retaliatory attacks in the region. In March, a Lebanese-born US citizen killed himself after crashing into a Jewish temple in Michigan, shooting security guards and igniting fireworks inside a day school, underscoring the vulnerability of religious institutions.
Authorities said they are still piecing together the sequence of events and the motivations behind Monday’s shooting. Investigators have not released the names of the teenage suspects or the three victims outside the mosque.
