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Two teenagers who shot and killed three people during an attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego met online and exchanged hateful writings, the FBI said. Authorities said the pair were radicalized where they first met and shared white supremacist views, and that their writings expressed hatred toward a wide range of groups.
The FBI’s Mark Remily, the lead agent in San Diego, said the shooters “didn’t discriminate on who they hated.” Investigators obtained writings from Cain Clark and Caleb Vazquez that included hateful rhetoric toward Jewish people, Muslims and Islam, and also toward the LGBTQ+ community, Black people, women, and both the political left and right, according to the FBI.
The FBI said both writings expressed beliefs that white people were being eliminated, and one of the documents also described a mental health struggle and being rejected by women. Authorities also said the two referred to themselves as “Sons of Tarrant,” an apparent reference to the white supremacist who attacked mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 and killed 51 people.
Investigators said they had found at least 30 guns, ammunition and a crossbow at two residences after the Monday attack and were trying to determine whether the shooters had broader plans, Remily said. Police said Clark, 17, and Vazquez, 18, died by suicide following the attack.
Family members of the two teenagers could not be reached for comment. Muslim American organizations have noted that anti-Muslim rhetoric has been rising across the United States, and the shooting followed other attacks on houses of worship as threats and hate crimes aimed at Muslim and Jewish communities increased since the start of the war in the Middle East.
Authorities said there was no specific threat against the Islamic center, which is the largest mosque in San Diego and also houses a school. Clark and Vazquez carried out the attack on a day when investigators were also working to understand how the radicalization began, Remily said, adding that “in terms of how the radicalization occurred, we’re still digging into that.”
Police said the security guard, Amin Abdullah, opened fire when the shooters arrived at the Islamic Center and tried to barge inside. The shooters wounded Abdullah as they reached the lobby, and he kept firing, police said, forcing them back outside, where they then fatally shot him. Police Chief Scott Wahl said the pair later went back into the building, searched through rooms emptied during the lockdown, and then left into the parking lot, where they killed Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad.
Imam Taha Hassane said Abdullah engaged the suspects in a gunbattle and called for a lockdown on his radio. Hassane said Abdullah “sacrificed his life to stop them from getting inside the classrooms.” Hassane said Abdullah had worked at the mosque for more than a decade and was known to the community as the handyman, cook and caretaker.
The San Diego Unified School District said Clark had been attending school online since 2021 and was set to graduate next month, and that in 2024 he had been on the wrestling team at Madison High School. A school district spokesman said Clark had no record of disciplinary issues in high school, and neighbors said they last saw him a few hours before the shooting as he drove away alone.
In the Islamic Center community, leaders described the mosque as a longtime target of hate mail but said it was still not prepared for a “horrible crime” of this scale. Hassane said leaders had never expected “such things” at the center, saying they had been used to receiving hate messages, people driving by and cursing, and other harassment.
Hassane said he spoke at a vigil held Tuesday evening with leaders of different faiths, where he told the hundreds gathered next to the center that they were there to celebrate the community’s unity and “to honor our heroes, our martyrs.”