United States: Two teens kill three in shooting at California mosque

Gun violence once again mourns the United States. This time, it appears to be driven by Islamophobia. Three people were killed on Monday in an attack on a mosque in California, carried out by two teenagers who reportedly committed suicide before the police arrived.

The two gunmen stormed the Islamic Center of San Diego late in the morning, which houses the largest mosque in this city of 1.4 million inhabitants, as well as a school for children. They killed three people and were found dead in a car near the place of worship.

Suspects with “hateful speech”

“At this stage, it appears that the suspects died from bullet wounds that they inflicted on themselves,” said San Diego police chief Scott Wahl. The presumed shooters were 17 and 18 years old.

The motive of the suspects remains to be clarified. But the police are treating this as an Islamophobic attack. According to preliminary investigation reports, “there was clearly hateful speech involved,” explained Scott Wahl. “There was no specific threat, especially no specific threat targeting the Islamic center, it was simply a type of hateful speech in general, covering a wide range.”

The shooting prompted a massive deployment of heavily armed police officers. When the first responders arrived on the scene, four minutes after the initial alerts, they found “three dead” in front of the Islamic center. Among these victims, a security officer reportedly “played a crucial role in preventing the situation from being much worse.” The children were evacuated from the school and placed in safety.

Previous warning from one of the shooter’s mother

Before taking their own lives, the two gunmen also appear to have targeted a neighborhood gardener, but failed to injure him, according to police. One of the shooters had also been reported to the police as a “runaway minor” by his mother, early in the morning, Scott Wahl explained. She described her son as “suicidal” and said that he had disappeared with his car and several weapons.

According to her description, her son left with a friend and both were “dressed in camouflage.” This led the police to dispatch units around his high school, before calls reported gunshots at the mosque. The teenager left a note behind, the content of which Scott Wahl refused to disclose. But the police chief cast doubt on the theory that the teenager was suicidal.

As the investigation progresses, San Diego and the United States are in shock. Especially since this attack occurred on the first day of Dhou al-hijja, a sacred period for the Muslim community. Donald Trump, on his part, deplored a “terrible situation.”