Teenagers shot people near a San Diego mosque and killed themselves
Kyiv • UNN
In San Diego, two teenagers shot three people near a mosque and committed suicide. The FBI is investigating the incident as a potential hate crime.
Two armed teenagers opened fire Monday at the Islamic Center of San Diego in the U.S. state of California, killing a security guard and two other men outside the mosque before the suspects were found dead of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said, UNN reports citing Reuters.
Details
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said local law enforcement and the FBI are investigating the attack on the largest mosque in San Diego County as a hate crime.
However, authorities have not publicly identified a specific motive or incident that triggered the gun violence.
All children attending the day school at the mosque complex were accounted for and safe following the shooting, which broke out around 11:40 a.m. local time (21:40 Kyiv time), officials said.
At a press conference, Wahl said the mother of one of the two suspects called police about two hours before the shooting to report that her son, whom she described as suicidal, had fled home taking three handguns belonging to her and her vehicle.
According to the chief, the mother said her son was with a companion and they were dressed in camouflage. Police began searching for the youths and dispatched patrols to a nearby shopping mall and the son's high school as a precaution when calls came in about the shooting at the mosque.
The chief declined to disclose the contents of a note he said the runaway's mother had found.
Prior to the shooting, police had not been notified of any "specific threat" to the mosque or any religious center, school, shopping district, or any other location, Wahl said.
Instead, police were faced with a case of "generalized hate rhetoric and hate speech," which, combined with reports of a runaway teenager with multiple weapons in camouflage, "triggered a much higher threat assessment."
The attack occurred a week before the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, and the annual Hajj pilgrimage of Islamic believers to the holy site of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
"We have never faced such a tragedy before," Taha Hassane, imam and director of the Islamic Center, told reporters. "It is extremely outrageous to shoot at a place of worship."
Dozens of law enforcement officers called to the scene found the bodies of three men associated with the mosque shot dead. Officials believe the slain security guard likely helped prevent further bloodshed.
Shortly thereafter, police discovered the bodies of two teenagers, aged 17 and 18, in a car in the middle of the street, who likely died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Wahl said 50 to 100 police officers from across the San Diego area responded immediately to the initial "active shooter" call and converged within four minutes on the mosque, located in the Clairemont residential and commercial district of California's second-most populous city.
Footage from local television stations showed dozens of patrol cars on a bridge, police in tactical gear with rifles positioned on the roof of the mosque near its dome, and armed officers on the ground making their way through the complex.
Wahl said law enforcement officers did not fire any shots during the episode.
Around the time they were responding to the attack, shots were also fired at a landscaper a few blocks away, and investigators are treating the incidents as related. 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 working out the details of what might have triggered the violence and how it unfolded.
The Islamic Center is the largest mosque in San Diego County and houses the Bright Horizon Academy, a school providing Islamic education.
While random gun violence has become common in public places across the United States, Muslim and Jewish communities have become particularly concerned after U.S. and Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Iran on February 28, and Iran responded with its own aerial attacks on Israel and several Gulf states, triggering an escalation of war throughout the region.
In March, a 41-year-old U.S. citizen of Lebanese descent committed suicide by 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 mosque in San Diego, houses a day school.