\u201cThese subjects did not discriminate on who they hated,\u201c said Mark Remily, the lead FBI agent in San Diego, adding, \u201dIn terms of how the radicalization occurred, we\u2019re still digging into that.\u201c<\/p>\n
Authorities are also looking into whether the shooters had broader plans, after investigators uncovered an arsenal of weapons at two residences in San Diego, including more than 30 guns, ammunition and a crossbow.<\/p>\n
Three victims in Monday\u2019s deadly shooting have been hailed as heroes for saving countless lives by occupying the attackers and keeping them from reaching people inside the building until police arrived at the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll three of our victims did not die in vain,\u201d San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said during a news conference on Tuesday. \u201cWithout distracting the attention, without delaying the actions of these two individuals \u2026 without question, there would have been many more fatalities yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the victims was identified as Amin Abdullah, a security guard at the mosque who was killed after exchanging gunfire with the attackers and triggering a lockdown order that Wahl said prevented them from gaining access to anyone inside the building, including 140 children studying at the school on site.<\/p>\n
The other two victims, Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad, were shot outside the building. While outside, the attackers heard police vehicles approaching and fled the scene, Wahl said.<\/p>\n
The suspects were found dead a few blocks away from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.<\/p>\n
Police and the FBI have said that they are investigating the attack as a hate crime but have declined to offer details about a possible motive.<\/p>\n
What happened?![\"Several](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026-05-18t195901z-52547581-rc2vblaf50ug-rtrmadp-3-california-shooting_1962.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Police respond to the scene of the shooting.<\/p>\n
(Mike Blake\/Reuters)<\/p>\n
Police responded to a report of an active shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego shortly before noon local time on Monday, where they found three deceased victims outside, Wahl said during a news conference afterward.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Wahl detailed how Abdullah confronted the suspects, exchanged gunfire with them and issued a lockdown protocol. Abdullah was killed near the entrance to the mosque.<\/p>\n
Security footage shows that the suspects then went \u201croom to room\u201d inside the building, but were unable to find anyone because of the lockdown that Abdullah issued, police said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it was not for him \u2026 the carnage would be much worse,\u201d Taha Hassane, imam at the Islamic center, said Tuesday. \u201cIf he didn\u2019t do what he did, and sacrifice his life, the two suspects would have [had] easy access to every single classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mosque is also home to a school for children from pre-K through third grade. Children were present at the time of the incident, but none were hurt, police said.<\/p>\n
Wahl said the suspects then spotted Kaziha and Awad through a window and exited the building to go after them. After shooting them both, the suspects appeared to have heard police vehicles quickly approaching and fled in their car, he said.<\/p>\n
At around the same time that police arrived at the Islamic center, there were reports of more gunfire a few blocks away, where it is believed the fleeing suspects fired at a landscaper, police said. Officers were then called to another nearby location, where a vehicle was found in the middle of the street, with the two suspects dead inside.<\/p>\n
What we know about the victims![\"Mansour](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3135f316-d058-4c77-b5e9-31a1f2001491.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Images of Mansour Kaziha, security guard Amin Abdullah and Nadir Awad, who were killed in the attack.<\/p>\n
(REUTERS \/ REUTERS)<\/p>\n
Hassane described Abdullah, the security guard, as \u201csuch a lovely person\u201d who \u201cnever stopped smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the absolute best dad in the world,\u201d his daughter, Hawaa Abdullah, said during a press conference on Tuesday. \u201cHe was my protector.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of if you were Muslim, if you were Jewish, if you had no faith. He didn\u2019t care. He would treat you human to human,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd I believe that\u2019s exactly the legacy he left behind. He wants all of us to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
A family friend of Abdullah\u2019s also told the Associated Press<\/a> that he had spoken with one of Abdullah’s sons as the family began to make funeral plans.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wanted to defend the innocent, so he decided to become a security guard,\u201d Shaykh Uthman Ibn Farooq said.<\/p>\n Abdullah was raised a Christian but converted to Islam after graduating from high school, according to the AP, which reported that he had worked at the mosque for more than a decade.<\/p>\n Kaziha was \u201cthe pillar of the Islamic Center of San Diego,\u201d Hassane said Tuesday and had been a member of the community \u201cworking nonstop\u201d since the mosque was first built in the 1980s. \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to do at the Islamic Center without his daily assistance,\u201d Hassane said.<\/p>\n Awad, whose wife is a teacher at the center, lived across the street and went there to worship every day, Hassane said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are our three heroes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The fund set up to support the families of the victims had raised more than $550,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n What we know about the suspects Two women leave a reunification center following the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego.<\/p>\n (ZOE MEYERS via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Law enforcement officials identified the suspects to Reuters<\/a> and the New York Times<\/a> as Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vasquez, 18. They appear to have met online, Remily said.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Wahl explained that police had received a report of a \u201crunaway juvenile\u201d from\u00a0Clark\u2019s mother a few hours before the shooting.<\/p>\n After learning that some of the mother\u2019s weapons had gone missing and that her son and a companion were dressed in camouflage, police began to believe there was a \u201cbigger threat picture\u201d facing the area, Wahl said.<\/p>\n Police searched several locations for the suspects, including a school and a local mall, when they received the call about the shooting at the mosque.<\/p>\n During searches conducted after the attack, authorities seized at least 30 guns and a crossbow, including pistols, rifles and shotguns, Remily said. The guns appear to have belonged to the parents of one of the suspects, Wahl said.<\/p>\n Authorities also found what they described as a manifesto and other hateful messages in their searches of the suspects\u2019 possessions and electronic devices, although they haven\u2019t found evidence that the mosque was a specific target.<\/p>\n Remily added that authorities are not sharing specifics about the suspects\u2019 beliefs because they don\u2019t want to \u201cgive their hate any credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two teenagers suspected of killing killed three people at a San Diego mosque reportedly livestreamed their deadly attack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[134481,134404,134115,134887,134944,2935,74,76,75,20305,135098,135125],"class_list":["post-324712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-abdullah","tag-amin-abdullah","tag-chief-scott-wahl","tag-hawaa-abdullah","tag-nadir-awad","tag-police-vehicles","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-security-guard","tag-taha-hassane","tag-white-supremacist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7d897386-38b8-4457-9422-d51d29df75ca.jpeg\"\/)
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