The two teenage assailants responsible for a mass shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, California, rushed toward the mosque “fully armored” with handguns and rifles, authorities said.
A security guard shot and struck one of the shooters, according to members of the mosque – but the attacker continued charging. The guard also alerted administrators of the school at the Islamic Center, telling them to go into lockdown, before he was shot and killed. “If it was not for him … The carnage would be much worse,” said imam Taha Hassane. “He sacrificed his life.”
Two other victims had been on the phone, calling the police, when they were killed, according to a witness who shared what he saw in an Instagram post from the Islamic Center. Police rushed to the scene and ultimately found the suspected shooters near the masjid, dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
The shooters had met and been radicalized online, according to the FBI. At a news conference on Tuesday, Mark Remily, the special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego office, said investigators uncovered a “manifesto” that expressed a “broad hatred” toward various races and religions.
Investigators also found 30 firearms and a crossbow after searching two residences in connection with the investigation. Remily said agents also seized tactical gear, ammunition and electronics.
“We also identified writings and various ideologies outlining religious and racial beliefs of how the world they envisioned should look,” he said. “These subjects did not discriminate on who they hated.” He added that it was still too early in the investigation to say whether the Islamic Center was the sole or specific target of the shooters.
On Monday, the mother of one of the shooters had alerted police soon before the shooting occurred that her son, a 17-year-old high school student, was suicidal and potentially armed. Officers had been looking for the 17-year-old and his 18-year-old friend in a neighborhood near the mosque as they opened fire.
Remily said that the firearms the shooters used were registered to one of their parents. “Exactly how they … were able to obtain them, is still under investigation,” he said. The FBI has opened a tip line and is still seeking more information about the shooters and their motives.
One of them had been enrolled in a virtual learning academy at the San Diego unified school district, according to a spokesperson for the district, and had been set to graduate high school this year.
During the shooting, five public schools near the Islamic Center were placed on lockdown. Hassane, the imam and director of the Islamic Center, said that center also practices active-shooter lockdown drills several times a year, which he said undoubtedly protected people.
“It worked, you know,” he said. “The lives of the kids were saved. The lives of everyone in the school were saved, and we’re so grateful for that.”
