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Two teenagers carried out a deadly attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing three men before taking their own lives, authorities said. Muslim leaders and law enforcement officials described the killings as a hate crime and said investigators were pursuing evidence of extremist views, including writings recovered from the suspects.
FBI Special Agent Mark Remily said the suspects met online and learned they both lived in the San Diego area. Remily also said it remained unclear how the teens became radicalized. Authorities identified the attackers as Caleb Liam Vazquez, 18, and Cain Lee Clark, 17.
According to Remily, investigators recovered more than 30 firearms and ammunition as they searched homes associated with the teens. The Associated Press reported that investigators obtained writings of both suspects, including hateful rhetoric toward Jewish people, Muslims and Islam, and the LGBTQ+ community, as well as Black people, women, and people on both the political left and right. Remily also said the teens “didn’t discriminate on who they hated,” in a reference to the breadth of the targets described in their materials.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said police were searching for at least one of the teens before the shooting began. Wahl said the mother of one suspect called police around 9:40 a.m. Monday, saying her son was suicidal and had run away. Wahl said the search became more urgent after police learned the teen was dressed in camouflage, had taken multiple weapons from the home, and was with an acquaintance—details Wahl said were not consistent with someone about to die by suicide.
Wahl said the attack started when the teens opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which he described as the largest mosque in San Diego County. As the shooters barged into the lobby, Wahl said they wounded the 51-year-old security guard, Amin Abdullah. Abdullah then used his radio to start a lockdown protocol, and Wahl said he kept firing at the attackers, helping to force them back outside.
Investigators said the lockdown mattered because children were nearby. Wahl said the attackers were kept away from the roughly 140 children who were “just steps away” during the assault. He also said the attackers returned inside and began searching rooms that had been emptied during the lockdown, and that at some point, two other people who were killed during the incident drew the gunmen farther away from the building.
The mosque 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 center, describing him as a handyman, cook and caretaker. Hassane said Awad’s wife is a teacher at the mosque’s school, and that Awad lived across the street from the mosque.
Muslim leaders said the attack is reverberating beyond the local community and underscored broader concerns about threats against Muslim and Jewish communities. Kaiser Aslam, a Muslim chaplain at the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University, said reactions in his community have been “heavy” and that people are working to ensure “everyone recognizes we need increased security.”
Condemnation of the attack came from international and national figures. The U.N. chief Antonio Guterres “stands in solidarity with the Muslim community and calls for a full investigation into the attack,” according to a spokesman for Guterres, Stephane Dujarric.