SDPD: Five dead — three victims and two teenage suspects — in Islamic Center of San Diego shooting
Hours before a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego left five dead, including two teenage suspects, the San Diego Police Department received a call from one of the suspect’s mothers alerting them to a threat.
The mother called to report a runaway juvenile who was suicidal and had taken her car and some of her weapons, and who was with a companion with both of them dressed in camouflage, SDPD Chief Scott Wahl said at a Monday press conference.
SDPD began investigating the threat, but without any specific knowledge of a target, Wahl said.
“There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved,” he said.
SDPD received a call of an active shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego at 11:43 am and arrived to find three adult male victims already deceased.
One, a security guard, “undoubtedly saved lives today,” Wahl said, declining to say more pending the ongoing investigation.
Before receiving the call to the Islamic Center, officers dispatched to the Fashion Valley mall, based on a hit from a license-plate reading camera. SDPD also dispatched officers to Madison High School, because one of the suspects was associated with the school.
After arriving at the Islamic Center and seeing the three deceased victims, officers and searched for the two suspects. SDPD then received a call about gunshots fired nearby. Wahl said the suspects apparently shot at a landscaper working a few blocks away.
While responding to that call, they received another about a car stopped in the middle of the road not far from there. Officers found the two suspects in the car, dead of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Asked about reported anti-Islamic writings found in the car, Wahl emphasized that the investigation is ongoing but reiterated SDPD is treating the incident as a hate crime.
“There are details and information that we are investigating as to exactly what the hate speech or hate words were that were conveyed,” he said. “Some of that is going to take more time to develop further, to see where that information is coming from. But yes it is definitely being investigated as a hate crime at this point, there was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved.”