Police are trying to piece together a motive for a midday Monday shooting outside a mosque in San Diego that killed three victims and left two teenage suspects dead nearby from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
“It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship,” Imam Taha Hassane, director of the center, said during a press conference. “Our Islamic center is a place of worship. People come to the Islamic center to pray, to celebrate, to learn.”
The names of the suspects have not yet been released. Investigators found anti-Islamic writings inside the suspects’ car, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News, and officials have disclosed they are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.
One of the suspects took a gun from his parents’ home and left a suicide note that included writings about racial pride, law enforcement officials told CNN. Those officials also said that hate speech was written on one of the firearms used in the attack.
The names of the victims have not been released either. Police have said one was a security guard at the center who “played a pivotal role” in preventing more deaths.
Police were on high alert even before the call about the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl told reporters that the department received a call Monday morning about a “runaway juvenile.” The mother of the teenager told police she worried her son was suicidal and that several of her weapons were missing. She also told police that her son was accompanied by a “companion” wearing camouflage. Police set off in search of the pair, including at a San Diego mall where license plate readers picked up a potential hit for the teens.
Just before 3 p.m. ET, police started to receive calls about a shooting at the center, the largest mosque in San Diego County. Officers began arriving on the scene within four minutes, police said.
Upon arrival, they found three dead adults outside, including the security guard.
The guard “played a pivotal role in assisting from this being much worse,” Chief Wahl said.
As many as 100 officers entered the Islamic Center to respond to the shooting and perform security checks inside.
At 3:53 p.m., police provided an update stating that the scene was “still active but contained,” adding that “significant resources” had been deployed.
As police worked to secure the mosque compound, more calls came in about gunfire nearby.
The suspects reportedly fired at a landscaper a few blocks from the Islamic Center, who was not seriously injured, police said.
Officers found two dead males, age 17 and 18, in a vehicle in the middle of the street. (Police earlier misstated that one of the suspects was 19.)
The teens died from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Shortly after 4 p.m., police said the threat at the center had been “neutralized.”
None of the children attending school at the center were killed. A spokesperson for an area hospital told NBC News that victims of the shooting had been transported there for treatment.
Wahl, the San Diego police chief, noted that the center is equipped with security cameras, which officials will review for evidence.
President Donald Trump described the shooting as a “terrible situation” on Monday afternoon, adding, “I’ve been given some early updates, but we’re going to be going back and looking at it very strongly.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim-American civil liberties organization in the U.S., released a statement condemning the shooting.
“No one should ever fear for their safety while attending prayers or studying at an elementary school,” CAIR said. “We are working to learn more about this incident and we encourage everyone to keep this community in your prayers.”
As of May 18, there have been 186 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2026, according to the website Mass Shooting Tracker, which defines mass shootings as those in which four or more people are shot.
