San Diego: Teenagers kill Islamic Center security guard and two other men, then found dead

Two armed teenagers opened fire on Monday at the Islamic Center in San Diego, California, killing a security guard and two other men outside the mosque before they were found dead, most likely from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said, Reuters reports.

San Diego Police Chief Scott Wall said local law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are investigating the attack on the largest mosque in San Diego County as a hate crime.

However, the authorities have not yet publicly stated a precise motive or the event that immediately preceded the violence.

All children attending a day school at the mosque complex were found safe after the shooting, which broke out around 11:40 a.m. local time, officials said.

At a news conference, Wall revealed that the mother of one of the two suspects called police about two hours before the shooting to report that her son, whom she described as suicidal, had run away from home, taking three of her guns and her vehicle.

Two teenagers in camouflage clothing

According to the police chief, the mother said her son was with another person and that both were dressed in camouflage clothing. Police launched a search for the young men and, as a precaution, sent patrols to a nearby shopping mall and the high school her son attended when calls came in about a shooting at the mosque.

The police chief refused to reveal the contents of the message, which he said was found by the mother of the runaway young man.

Before the shooting, police were not notified of any "specific threat" to the mosque, any religious center, school, shopping area or other location, Vol said.

The police, he said, were dealing with a case of "general hate rhetoric and hate speech," which, along with reports of a runaway teenager with multiple weapons and in camouflage clothing, "triggered a much more serious threat assessment."

The attack occurred a week before the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and the annual pilgrimage of Islamic believers to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

"We have never experienced a tragedy like this before. It is completely outrageous to target a place of worship," Taha Hasane, an imam and director of the Islamic Center, told reporters.

Dozens of police officers dispatched to the scene found the bodies of three men associated with the mosque, shot dead. Officials said the slain security guard likely helped prevent further bloodshed.

Shortly thereafter, police found the bodies of two teenagers, ages 17 and 18, in a vehicle in the middle of the street, dead from what is believed to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Police initially said the older boy was 19 years old.

Details still incomplete

Wall said 50 to 100 police officers from the greater San Diego area responded immediately to the first call about an "active shooter" and within four minutes they were gathered at the mosque, located in the residential and commercial district of Claremont in California's second most populous city.

Local television footage showed dozens of police vehicles on a highway bridge, officers in tactical gear and armed with rifles on the roof of the mosque near the dome, and armed police on the ground moving through the complex.

Wall said that police did not fire a single shot during the incident.

Around the time they responded to the attack, a landscaper was also shot a few blocks away, and investigators are treating the incidents as related. The landscaper was not injured, Wall said, adding that he was wearing a helmet that may have deflected the bullet.

Five hours after the shooting, the police chief said investigators were still piecing together details about what might have sparked the violence and how it unfolded.

The Islamic Center is the largest mosque in San Diego County and is home to Bright Horizon Academy, a school that provides Islamic education.

While random gun violence has become a common occurrence in public places across the US, Muslim and Jewish communities have become particularly concerned since US and Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Iran on February 28, and Iran responded with its own airstrikes on Israel and several Gulf states, sparking an increasingly intense war across the region.

In March, a 41-year-old Lebanese-born American citizen committed suicide after crashing a truck into Michigan's largest Jewish temple, opening fire on security guards and setting off fireworks. The synagogue near Detroit, like the mosque in San Diego, had a day school.