The deadly attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego left the community mourning and facing new questions about how quickly a violent plan could unfold inside a place of worship.
FBI and local officials said the attack involved two teenagers who opened fire Monday at the mosque, where three men were killed before the attackers took their own lives. Mark Remily, the lead FBI agent in San Diego, said Tuesday that investigators were looking into the case as a hate crime and that the suspects met online and both lived in the San Diego area. Remily added that it remained unclear how the teenagers became radicalized.
Authorities said they obtained writings associated with both suspects that included hateful rhetoric toward multiple religious and social groups, including Jewish people, Muslims and Islam, and the LGBTQ+ community. The material also expressed hostility toward Black people, women and both political left and right, and investigators said the teenagers shared beliefs described in the FBI briefing as centering on white people being eliminated.
Remily said the teenagers “didn’t discriminate on who they hated,” describing the scope of the animus. Investigators also identified the attackers as Caleb Liam Vazquez, 18, and Cain Lee Clark, 17.
Police were already looking for the suspects when the shooting began, according to San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl. Wahl said that one suspect’s mother called police around 9:40 a.m. Monday, telling officers her son was suicidal and had run away. Wahl said police learned the teenager was dressed in camouflage, had taken multiple weapons from the home, and was with an acquaintance—details he said were not consistent with someone about to die by suicide.
Officers were interviewing the mother and trying to determine where the two teenagers might be when the shooting started at the Islamic Center of San Diego, described by officials as the largest mosque in San Diego County. Wahl said the attackers barged into the mosque’s lobby, where they wounded Amin Abdullah, 51, the center’s security guard.
According to Wahl, Abdullah used his radio to start a lockdown protocol and continued firing at the attackers, forcing them back outside before they fatally shot him. Wahl described Abdullah as a father of eight and said he had worked at the Islamic Center for a decade.
Wahl said the attackers returned inside and began searching through rooms that had been emptied during the lockdown. He said that at some point, two of the men killed during the attack drew the gunmen farther away from the building.
Mosque leaders identified the other victims as Mansour Kaziha, 78, known as Abu Ezz, and Nadir Awad, 57. Imam Taha Hassane said Kaziha “was everything” to the Islamic Center, describing him as a handyman, cook and caretaker. Hassane said Awad’s wife teaches at the school and that Awad lived across the street from the mosque.
Investigators continued to piece together how the attack unfolded after the bodies were found. Wahl said investigators recovered more than 30 firearms and ammunition Tuesday while searching homes associated with the teenagers.
The shooting also reverberated nationally and internationally, with calls for expanded security at houses of worship amid what officials described as rising threats and hate crimes targeting Muslim and Jewish communities. Kaiser Aslam, a Muslim chaplain at the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said reactions in his community were “heavy,” and that in community discussions “there’s an effort to make sure that everyone recognizes we need increased security.”
Condemnation came from multiple quarters, including the United Nations. A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Guterres “stands in solidarity with the Muslim community and calls for a full investigation into the attack,” and stressed “the urgent need to confront hatred and intolerance in all their forms.”
Investigators said the case would remain under review as officials recovered evidence and pursued interviews in San Diego and beyond.