A woman who showed up with a gun at the same San Diego mosque where gunmen shot and killed three people in May returned to the site Wednesday morning and was detained for a mental health evaluation, police said.
On Wednesday morning, authorities learned the woman had again approached the Islamic Center of San Diego after she prompted a lockdown Tuesday. Officials there had maintained contact with her and invited her back to provide assistance, while San Diego Police Department officials communicated with the center to ensure safety.
Northern Division officers responded alongside Psychiatric Emergency Response Team clinicians to assist the woman, according to an SDPD statement. Police said she is not facing any criminal charges nor under arrest by the department, but was detained for a mental health evaluation.
The events that led to the roughly 90-minute security alert at the center began shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday, when police learned that a motorist had fled from police in Carlsbad and was possibly driving south to San Diego, police said.
About a half-hour later, after being told that the woman might be distraught and possibly was on her way to the Eckstrom Avenue mosque, officers were sent there, the SDPD stated.
Before police arrived, the woman showed up at the religious center, spoke to a security guard and then left, police said.
While working to determine the whereabouts of the woman, officers coordinated with staff members at the mosque to lock it down “out of an abundance of caution,” according to the SDPD statement.
At about 4 p.m., police confirmed that the woman was no longer in San Diego County, and the lockdown was lifted, police said.
Five months ago, an 18-year-old man and 17-year-old boy opened fire at the mosque, killing a security guard and two other congregation members before fleeing in a vehicle and killing themselves.
Writings found in the car with the gunmen’s bodies described hatred toward “various religions and races,” authorities said.
In August, a 17-year-old North Carolina girl was arrested and indicted by a grand jury on three counts of murder in the case. She is accused of colluding with the gunmen to live-stream the shooting at the San Diego mosque.
