A mother’s fearful call, a frantic hunt — how the San Diego shooting unfolded
Investigators probing anti-Muslim hate motive after teens killed 3 and then themselves
Dubai: It began with a terrified mother’s phone call — and ended in one of the deadliest attacks on a US mosque in recent years.
Around 9:40am on Monday, the mother of a 17-year-old boy called San Diego police to report that her son had vanished. He was suicidal, she said. Several guns were missing from the house. So was her vehicle. Her son also appeared to be with another teenager.
Police immediately launched a desperate search across San Diego, using automated license plate readers and rushing officers to locations where the suspects were believed to be, according to AP reports.
Investigators later said the pair’s real target was the Islamic Center of San Diego — the largest mosque in San Diego County.
By the time police tracked them down, three men had been killed outside the sprawling mosque complex, including a security guard hailed as a hero for trying to stop the attack. The two teenage suspects were later found dead in a vehicle nearby from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said.
Authorities are now investigating the shooting as a hate crime.
Who were the suspected shooters?
Police identified the suspects as two teenagers aged 17 and 18.
NBC News named them as Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, citing law enforcement officials.
Authorities said the pair were found dead inside a vehicle near the mosque from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Investigators said one suspect’s mother had warned police hours earlier that her son was suicidal and had taken weapons and a vehicle from home.
Police say the attack is being investigated as a hate crime after evidence of extremist and hate-filled rhetoric was discovered.
“There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said, according to AFP.
The attack unfolded just hours after police first began hunting for the missing teenagers.
Chief Wahl said officers initially feared a possible suicide situation, but concern quickly escalated when they learned the suspect was dressed in camouflage and accompanied by another teen — details that suggested something more dangerous was unfolding.
Suspects found dead
Police tracked the vehicle to a mall area and also alerted Madison High School, where one of the suspects had reportedly been a student, AP reported.
But before officers could locate them, gunfire erupted at the mosque.
“We received a call of an active shooter at the Islamic center. Within four minutes, officers arrived on scene and observed immediately three deceased victims out in front,” Wahl said.
Police then moved through the mosque and its adjacent school fearing an active shooter situation, while reports also came in about shots being fired at a landscaper nearby, who escaped unharmed.
A short distance away, officers found the suspects dead inside a vehicle stopped in the middle of a road.
Investigators later found evidence of “generalized hate rhetoric,” Wahl said, while CNN reported that one of the suspects left behind a suicide note containing racial extremist views and that hate speech had been scrawled on one of the weapons.
The mosque’s imam, Taha Hassane, said staff, teachers and children inside the mosque school were safely evacuated.
“We have never experienced tragedy like this before,” he said.
“It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship.”
Television footage showed children holding hands as police escorted them away from the mosque grounds surrounded by heavily armed officers and emergency vehicles.
Among the dead was mosque security guard Amin Abdullah, identified by family friends as a longtime protector of the community.
Police said his actions likely prevented an even greater massacre.
“His actions were heroic, and he undoubtedly saved lives today,” Wahl said.
The attack drew condemnation across the US.
President Donald Trump described it as a “terrible situation,” while California Governor Gavin Newsom said worshippers should never fear for their lives.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it “an apparent act of anti-Muslim violence” and announced increased police deployments around mosques in New York “out of an abundance of caution.”
