Two teenage gunmen opened fire on Monday at the Islamic Center of San Diego, California, killing a security guard and two other men outside the mosque before the suspects were found dead, apparently from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said local law enforcement and the FBI were investigating the attack on the largest mosque in San Diego County as a hate crime.
However, no precise motive or precipitating incident for the gun violence has been publicly suggested by authorities.
All of the children attending a day school at the mosque complex were accounted for and safe after the shooting, which erupted at about 11:40am PDT (1840 GMT), officials said.
At an evening news conference, Wahl disclosed that the mother of one of the two suspects had called the police about two hours before the shooting to report that her son, whom she described as suicidal, had run away from home, taking three guns she owned and her vehicle.
Two teens dressed in camouflage
According to the chief, the mother said her son was with a companion and the two were dressed in camouflage. Police initiated efforts to track down the youths and were dispatching patrols to a nearby shopping mall and the son’s high school as a precaution when calls came in reporting the mosque shooting.
The chief declined to disclose the contents of a note he said was found by the runaway’s mother.
Prior to the shooting, the police were not made aware of any “specific threat” to the mosque or any religious center, school, shopping area, or any other place, Wahl said.
Police instead were confronting a case of “generalized hate rhetoric and hate speech,” which together with reports of a runaway teenager with multiple weapons wearing camouflage “triggered a much bigger threat assessment”.
The attack came the week before Eidul Azha and the Hajj pilgrimage.
“We have never experienced a tragedy like this before,” Taha Hassane, the imam and director of the Islamic Center, told reporters. “It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship.”
Scores of law enforcement officers called to the scene encountered the bodies of the three men affiliated with the mosque shot dead. Officials credited the slain security guard as likely having helped prevent further bloodshed.
A short time later, police discovered the bodies of two teenage males, aged 17 and 18, in a vehicle in the middle of a street, dead from apparently self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Police originally put the age of the older youth at 19.
Details remain sketchy
Wahl said 50 to 100 police officers from across the San Diego area immediately responded to the first “active shooter” call and within four minutes had converged on the mosque, located in the residential-commercial Clairemont district of California’s second-most populous city.
Footage from local television stations showed dozens of patrol cars on a highway bridge, police in tactical gear armed with rifles perched on the roof of the mosque near its dome, and armed officers on the ground making their way through the complex.
Wahl said no shots were fired by law enforcement during the episode.
At about the time they were responding to the attack, shots were also fired at a landscaper a couple of blocks away, and investigators are treating the incidents as connected. The landscaper was not injured, Wahl said, adding that the man was wearing a helmet that may have deflected a bullet.
Five hours after the shooting, the police chief said investigators were still piecing together details of what may have ignited the violence and how it transpired.
The Islamic Center is the largest mosque in San Diego County and houses the Bright Horizon Academy.
Although random gun violence has become a common occurrence in public places across the United States, Muslim and Jewish communities have grown particularly apprehensive since US and Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Iran on February 28, and Iran responded with its own air attacks on Israel and several Gulf states, sparking an intensifying war across the region.
In March, a 41-year-old Lebanese-born US citizen killed himself after crashing his truck into the largest Jewish temple in Michigan, opening fire on security guards and causing an explosion with fireworks.
The synagogue near Detroit, like the San Diego mosque, housed a day school.
Condemnations
California Governor Gavin Newsom said, “Hate has no place in California.”
In a statement posted on X, Newsom and his partner said, “Worshippers should not have to fear for their lives. We will not tolerate acts of terror or intimidation against communities of faith.”
New York Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani said he was “horrified” by the attack.
“Islamophobia endangers Muslim communities across this country. We must confront it directly and stand together against the politics of fear and division. My thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones, and the entire community grieving this devastating attack,” he said.
“The NYPD is increasing deployments to mosques across the city out of an abundance of caution. There are currently no known threats to NYC houses of worship,” he added.
US Senator Lindsey Graham said he was heartbroken to hear about the “senseless shooting”.
“As Americans, we must stand firmly together, rejecting the senseless killing of people of faith. We truly live in dangerous and sick times,” he said.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said, “Devastated by the shooting at a mosque in San Diego. No one should feel unsafe in their house of worship. Our thoughts are with the victims, families, and all those grieving. Hate and violence have no place in our communities.”
She added that New Jersey police would “increase patrol visibility around houses of worship statewide and continue coordinating with law enforcement and faith-based partners to help keep communities safe”.
