Adrian Collen had just arrived back to the home he shares with his mother – five blocks south of San Diego’s largest mosque – when he heard five gunshots and ran to the door where he saw a white car with the driver’s side window broken and glass flying off, he said.
The driver, who seemed to be yelling as he drove away, looked younger, he said, adding: “I thought it was just a kid.” Collen then went outside and saw that a landscaper working at his next-door neighbors’ home was on the ground and noticed he was “bloody on the head” as he stood up, he told CNN.
It looked like the landscaper had been hit by bullets, as well as the neighbors’ home and a tree, Collen said. The shots were fired in the area around 11:48 am, said Collen, citing footage captured on his Ring camera.
The shooting took place at the same time law enforcement was responding to a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, the city’s largest mosque, said Police Chief Scott Wahl. A landscaper on scene was shot at a few blocks away but was not hit, Wahl said.
“We love this area,” said Collen, who had moved into the house with his mother in October. “It’s so many families. It’s incredibly disheartening that this could happen here.”