Teenagers behind mass shooting in San Diego rushed at mosque ‘fully armored’ | San Diego mosque shooting
The two teenage attackers responsible for the mass shooting at California’s Islamic Center of San Diego ran toward the mosque “fully armored” with handguns and rifles, authorities said.
According to mosque members, a security guard shot and shot one of the shooters, but the attacker continued to attack. Before he was shot and killed, security guard Amin Abdullah warned the administrators of the school in the Islamic Center and told them to be isolated. “If it wasn’t for him… The massacre would have been much worse,” Imam Taha Hassane said. “He sacrificed his life.”
The other two victims, identified by the Islamic Center as Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad, were on the phone calling the police when they were killed. A witness shared details of what he saw Instagram post From the Islamic Center. The police arrived at the scene and found the suspected attackers dead near the mosque, as a result of the fire they opened.
The Islamic Center called the 3 victims “3 heroic martyrs” and launched a campaign. fundraiser for their families and others affected by the mass shooting.
According to the FBI, the attackers met online and were radicalized. At a news conference Tuesday, Mark Remily, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego office, said investigators had uncovered a “manifesto” expressing “broad hatred” against various races and religions.
Investigators also found 30 firearms and a crossbow after searching two homes related to the investigation. Agents also seized tactical equipment, ammunition and electronics, Remily said.
“We also identified writings and various ideologies that outlined religious and racial beliefs about what the world they imagined should look like,” he said. “These subjects were not discriminating in who they hated.” He added that it was too early in the investigation to say whether the Islamic Center was the attackers’ sole target or their specific target.
Acting U.S. attorney Todd Blanche said his office, along with the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, was working “with local law enforcement partners to fully investigate the circumstances surrounding this horrific and senseless attack on a religious institution.”
On Monday, the mother of one of the attackers had warned police shortly before the shooting that her 17-year-old high school student son was suicidal and possibly armed. Officers were searching for the 17-year-old and his 18-year-old friend in a neighborhood near the mosque when they opened fire.
Remily said the guns used by the attackers were registered to one of her parents. “Exactly how they were able to obtain them is still being investigated,” he said. The FBI opened a tip line and is still seeking more information about the attackers and their motives.
One of them was enrolled in a virtual learning academy in the San Diego unified school district and was due to graduate from high school this year, according to a district spokeswoman.
Five public schools near the Islamic Center were quarantined during the conflict. Hassane, the Islamic Center’s imam and director, said the center conducts active shooter interdiction drills several times a year, which undoubtedly protects people.
“It worked, you know,” he said. “The kids’ lives were saved. The lives of everyone at the school were saved, and we’re so grateful for that.”
