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Authorities are investigating the incident as a hate crime. According to preliminary investigations, the suspects committed suicide…
Three people, including a security guard, were killed Monday in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, the main mosque in the city in Southern California.
The two attackers also died, police said. They were teenagers and their bodies were found a few blocks from the scene, inside a vehicle near the mosque, Mark Remily, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego office, told a news conference. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl later said they had committed suicide.
The motive for the attack is not yet clear, but authorities are investigating the incident as a “hate crime,” Wahl said. He added that police responded to reports of an active gunman around noon local time (nine hours later in mainland Spain). When they arrived at the scene, officers found three people dead. The two suspects were later located dead.
According to The New York Times, investigators found Islamophobic writings in the vehicle. Before the attack, one of the suspects had taken a gun from his parents’ home and left a suicide note, officials told the American newspaper on condition of anonymity. They also added that one of the weapons used in the attack had the phrase “hate speech” written on it.
The Islamic Center of San Diego is a mosque, but it also includes a school. Its director, Imam Taha Hassane, said Monday he was "outraged by the attack on a place of worship."
"This is a moment of pain and sadness. We have never experienced such a tragedy before. At this moment, all I can say is that our prayers are with all the families in our community," Hassane declared.
Monday's attack is the latest in a series of attacks on religious institutions in the United States, prompting authorities to tighten security around such centers. In March, a man attacked a synagogue in suburban Detroit that also housed an elementary school. He crashed his truck into the building, causing a fire, and then died in a shootout with security guards.
United States President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he had been briefed on the attack. “It’s terrible,” Trump said of the mosque attack. Other national political figures, such as California Governor Gavin Newsom, also reacted publicly to the incident.
Brian Sánchez, a young man who lives opposite the mosque, told the newspaper EL PAÍS by phone that the first shots were heard at 11:41.
“I was in my room, lying down, when I heard five or six shots. My father was outside. Then there were 10 more, followed by 10 more shots. And finally four more shots. A few minutes later we heard police sirens. There were a lot of shots,” said Sánchez, who said he couldn’t go to work because the police had surrounded the neighborhood.
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