Two teenage gunmen opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, killing three men before dying by suicide a few blocks away, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said. The attack, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime, has shaken the region’s Muslim community and focused attention on the security of houses of worship already on edge after a wave of similar incidents nationwide.
MSI previously reported that two teenagers carried out the attack before taking their own lives, and that authorities were already searching for one of them before the shooting. Additional details have emerged since then about the suspects’ online activity and contact with law enforcement in the hours leading up to the attack.
Wahl said Monday that investigators found evidence that the suspects engaged in “generalized hate rhetoric” but declined to provide further details, saying the “circumstances that led up to this” would come out in the coming days. He stressed that there had been no specific threat against the Islamic Center of San Diego.
Before the attack, officers were already looking for one of the teenagers. His mother had called police concerned that her son was suicidal and had run away, Wahl said. Weapons were missing from the home, and the mother’s vehicle was gone, he added.
The search took on even more urgency as police learned that the teen was dressed in camouflage and with an acquaintance — details that Wahl described as unexpected for someone about to die by suicide.
The three men killed inside the mosque have not been publicly identified by authorities, pending notification of family members. The two shooters died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound a few blocks from the mosque, police said.
The attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents targeting Muslim communities in the United States. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it was monitoring the investigation and called for a thorough hate-crime inquiry.
Wahl said police would release additional information about the shooters’ motives and any connection to extremist ideology as the investigation progresses. The FBI is assisting with the probe, he added.