A 29-year-old man was behind bars Friday on suspicion of carrying out a shooting at an El Cajon dentist’s office where he had once been a patient.
The shooting left dentist Benjamin Harouni dead and two others wounded, including a receptionist, in what El Cajon Police Chief Mike Moulton called a “senseless and evil act of violence” in a statement.
Mohammed Sabah Abdulkareem of El Cajon allegedly shot the victims at Smile Plus Dentistry & Orthodontics in the 400 block of North Magnolia Avenue at about 4:15 p.m. Thursday, then fled in a rented U-Haul truck, according to police.
Harouni, 28, who worked with his father Jack Harouni at the practice, died at the scene. Paramedics took the other two victims – a woman identified by media outlets as Yareli Carillo, 28 and an unnamed man in his 40s – to a hospital, where they were admitted in serious but stable condition.
Via a license-plate-reading camera system, police were able to quickly identify the getaway vehicle and release a photo of it to the public and news media, El Cajon police Capt. Royal Bates said.
“Detectives used the license-plate information to determine that Abdulkareem had … rented the vehicle in San Diego,” Bates said.
Shortly after 9 p.m., a resident reported spotting the truck parked near Sixth Avenue and Quince Street, on the west side of Balboa Park. San Diego police found it there, unoccupied.
A short time later, officers located Abdulkareem nearby and took him into custody without incident. At the time of his arrest, the suspect allegedly was carrying a loaded handgun and several loaded ammunition cartridges.
Record checks on the firearm showed that it had been legally purchased by Abdulkareem two weeks ago, Bates said.
Police booked the suspect into San Diego Central Jail on suspicion of one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. He was being held without bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
“While the exact motive behind the shooting remains under investigation, it is believed that Abdulkareem was a disgruntled former customer (of the dentistry office),” Bates said.
Though various media organizations, including Yeshiva World News, identified Harouni as a member of the Orthodox Jewish faith and Abdulkareem as Muslim, police and the Anti-Defamation League stated that there was no immediate evidence that the deadly attack had been a hate crime.
“The shooting at the dentist’s office yesterday is heartbreaking and traumatic for the families involved as well as our community at large,” El Cajon police said in a Friday statement. “We understand there are concerns about the suspect’s motive. While we are still in the early stages of the investigation, we want to make it clear that there is no indication the attack was racially or politically motivated. As we continue to conduct a thorough investigation, we will keep the community informed of any new developments.
– City News Service
Updated 7:55 p.m. March 1, 2024
