Police have reported that two teenagers shot and killed three men outside a San Diego Mosque on Monday morning before turning their guns on themselves.
The incident began while officers were already in the area responding to a report regarding a missing, potentially suicidal teenager. During that investigation, police were called to the Islamic Center of San Diego—the largest mosque in the county—where they discovered three male victims with fatal gunshot wounds outside the building.
Shortly after, a separate report came in involving shots fired from a vehicle at a nearby landscaper. Officers later located the two suspects, aged seventeen and eighteen, dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds inside a vehicle a few blocks away. While an official motive has not been finalized, investigators are treating the assault as a suspected hate crime due to the target location and writings linked to one of the shooters.
San Diego mosque attack days before Eid
The attack occurred just days before Eid al-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice), one of the holiest periods on the Islamic calendar.
Imam Taha Hassane, director of the Islamic Center, condemned the violence during a press conference, stating, “It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship” and emphasizing that the facility is “a house of worship, not a battlefield.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom expressed horror over the tragedy at a place “where families and children gather, and neighbors worship in peace and fellowship.” He added a firm warning that the state “will not tolerate acts of terror or intimidation against communities of faith.”
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