A month after two teens killed three people at the Islamic Center of San Diego, police on Thursday detained a motorist near the mosque in a car that held a Nazi flag and a suspicious-looking canister.
San Diego police officers on site at the Eckstrom Avenue religious center took note of the dark sedan and its contents at about 11:45 a.m., Lt. Cesar Jimenez said. They called in to police headquarters, and dispatchers notified other patrol units in the vicinity.
Officers found the vehicle near the 4300 block of Derrick Drive, about a mile northwest of the mosque, pulled it over and detained the driver for questioning, Jimenez said.
A bomb squad was called in to determine the nature of the unidentified canister and any other potentially dangerous objects or substances in the car. The process of completing a sweep of the vehicle continued in the late afternoon, the lieutenant said. A bomb disposal bot was on standby.
Police notified the local FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force about the incident, Jimenez said.
“At this time, there is no active threat to the Islamic Center of San Diego,” the lieutenant said. “The investigation remains ongoing.”
Authorities evacuated several nearby businesses, while residents of a nearby apartment complex were asked to shelter in place. Those precautionary measures have been lifted, but nearby streets remained cordoned off for hours.
The May 18 hate crime at the city’s largest mosque claimed the lives of three people, an on-duty security guard credited with warning those inside the mosque of the attack and two other members of the center’s congregation.
The camouflage-clad suspected killers, an 18-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy, fled the scene and soon turned their guns on themselves. Both died.
