The FBI said the two teenagers who carried out the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego were radicalized online after they met there and exchanged writings that authorities say reflected white supremacist views. In comments to reporters, Mark Remily, the lead FBI agent in San Diego, said the men “didn’t discriminate on who they hated,” describing a broad spread of hostility in the materials investigators obtained.
Remily and other authorities said the two suspects identified as Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, met online and then later discovered they both lived in the San Diego area. Investigators said they were still examining how that radicalization took place and what role the two men’s online relationship played in their decisions.
Investigators also said they found writings that expressed hate toward Jewish people, Muslims and Islam, and toward the LGBTQ+ community, Black people and women, and that the texts also attacked people across the political left and right. The FBI said the writings included beliefs that white people were being eliminated, and one of the men wrote about mental health struggles and being rejected by women.
Authorities said there was no specific threat against the Islamic Center of San Diego before the attack. The center is the largest mosque in San Diego and also houses a school; investigators said it sits next to classrooms and that the security response helped keep the shooters from reaching children who were steps away.
On the day after the attack, investigators said they were trying to determine whether the two teenagers had broader plans, after police and federal agents searched two residences and found at least 30 guns, ammunition and a crossbow. Police said Clark and Vazquez died by suicide after the shooting.
Police described the attack sequence as starting when the security guard, Amin Abdullah, opened fire when the shooters arrived and tried to barge inside. Police Chief Scott Wahl said Abdullah kept firing as the attackers made their way into the lobby, wounding him and forcing the shooters back outside, where they fatally shot him.
Wahl said the pair then returned inside, searched through areas that had been emptied during the lockdown, and later exited into the parking lot, where they shot and killed Mansour Kaziha, known as Abu Ezz, and Nadir Awad. Imam Taha Hassane said Kaziha was “everything” to the Islamic Center, calling him the handyman, cook, and caretaker, and Hassane said Abdullah “sacrificed his life to stop them from getting inside the classrooms.”
In remarks Tuesday at a vigil honoring the victims, Hassane told the hundreds gathered next to the center that the community was united. He said the crowd was there to celebrate “the patience, the resilience of the Muslim community” and to honor “our heroes, our martyrs.”
Authorities and community members also pointed to the pressures faced by houses of worship. The shooting was described as part of a string of attacks on places of worship, occurring as threats and hate crimes targeting Muslim and Jewish communities have increased since the start of the war in the Middle East.
The FBI said the writings included symbols associated with white supremacists and Nazis and that the two called themselves “Sons of Tarrant,” an apparent reference to a white supremacist who attacked mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019. Muslim American organizations said anti-Muslim rhetoric has risen across the United States.