Authorities confirmed the identities of two other men killed in an attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, in the latest apparent hate incident in the United States.
Mosque officials on Tuesday said Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad had been killed when two gunmen attacked the religious site the day before.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
That came after friends and family identified Amin Abdullah, a security guard credited with thwarting the attackers, as the third man killed. The alleged gunmen were later found dead of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Police have been investigating the attack as a hate crime.
The chairman of the Mosque’s board of directors, Ahmed Shabaik, said all three men had played a role in responding to the gunmen.
Mansour Kaziha, a longtime employee of the mosque, called police before he was killed, Shabaik said. Nader Awad, a member of the mosque who lived across the street, rushed to the facility when he heard gunshots.
Kaziha “has been with the mosque since its construction in the 1980s”, Shabaik said. “He does everything in the mosque, all the everyday demands. He also ran the gift shop inside the mosque and was behind all the cooking during Ramadan for iftar and made the suhoor meals.”
“He was a cornerstone, a pillar of this masjid,” he said, adding that Kaziha, who was originally from Syria, was married with five adult children.
Awad was also a husband and father, he said, adding that “when he heard the shots, he ran into the masjid to help, he also diverted some people who were coming to the masjid at the time.”
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Imam Taha Hassane said Awad’s wife is a teacher at the Islamic school and he was a devout member of the community.
“He is every single day at the Islamic Center, joining the prayers every single day,” he said.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said the three men’s actions likely helped to save 140 children inside a school at the address.
He said Abdullah engaged in a gunfight with the attackers and followed proper lockdown protocols, slowing their progress. After he was killed, Awad and Kaziha “drew the attention” of the attackers to the car park, where they were eventually cornered and killed.
“I want to be very clear, all three of our victims did not die in vain,” Wahl said. “Without distracting the attention, without delaying the actions of these two individuals, without question, there would have been many more fatalities yesterday.”
‘Predictable as it is unacceptable’
On Tuesday, the mosque complex, the largest in the county, remained closed as police continued their investigation. Authorities said the alleged attackers were ages 17 and 18, but their identities were not immediately released.
Police had been searching for the teenagers for two hours at the time of the attack. The response was launched after one of their mothers told police her son was suicidal and had run away from home. Authorities were searching homes believed to belong to the attackers on Tuesday, with an FBI official saying more than 30 guns and a crossbow had been recovered.
Speaking to reporters, Police Chief Wahl said they had not yet uncovered any direct threat against the mosque, but that the suspects had used more general “hate rhetoric”.
Shabaik said the mosque has seen an increase in hate calls in recent times, as instances of Islamophobia have remained elevated amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
That has included Islamophobic statements by several US senators and members of the House of Representatives.
“Hate against American Muslims is completely out of control,” the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement on Tuesday.
“A deadly attack on an American mosque was as predictable as it is unacceptable,” it said.
Mosque officials said that while precautions had been taken, the community could not anticipate it would go this far.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Shabaik expressed relief that the attack did not happen during Friday prayers, when the mosque is typically most crowded, and that a college class visiting the facility had departed moments before Monday’s attack.
He pointed to an outpouring of support since Monday, with a fundraising page for victims promoted by the mosque raising nearly $500,000 within a day. A separate fundraising page launched by CAIR San Diego for the family of Abullah has topped $2m.
“We know that they and their families have sacrificed a lot for the sake of the community,” Shabaik said. “So we love them, and we would like to support them in every way that we can.”
