Three men and two suspects dead after shooting at San Diego mosque

A burst of gunfire shattered calm at a California mosque complex, leaving three men dead before police later found the two suspected teenage attackers dead from apparent suicide.

Emergency crews responding to the scene discovered the victims outside the sprawling Islamic Center of San Diego, police said.

The suspected shooters, 18 and 17, died by suicide, according to investigators.

“We are actively investigating this as a hate crime,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl told reporters.

The Islamic Center, in southern California’s San Diego County, describes itself on its website as the county’s largest mosque.

Police vehicles near the Islamic Center of San Diego after the shooting

After a brief lockdown, during which authorities urged nearby residents to remain indoors, San Diego police said the threat at the centre had been “neutralised”.

“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,” Mr Wahl said.

“We immediately began to deploy with an active shooter response into the mosque and adjacent school,” he said, adding that police had also received reports of more gunfire nearby, where shots were fired at a landscaper who was not struck.

Place of worship attacked

Several blocks from the Islamic Center, officers found a vehicle stopped in the middle of the street with the two suspected shooters dead inside.

“There were no officers involved in firing their weapons,” Mr Wahl said.

He said one of the three people killed was a security guard at the Islamic Center, whose intervention helped avert what authorities believe could have been an even deadlier assault.

“His actions were heroic and he undoubtedly saved lives today,” Mr Wahl said.

Mr Wahl said the mother of one of the suspects had contacted police about two hours before the attack to report that several weapons and her vehicle were missing.

According to the chief, she told officers that her son was with another person and that both were dressed in camouflage.

Police then began trying to locate the pair and were sending patrols to a nearby shopping mall and the son’s high school as a precaution when emergency calls came in about the shooting at the mosque.

Mr Wahl declined to disclose the contents of a note he said was found by the boy’s mother.

Before the shooting, police had not been alerted to any “specific threat” involving the mosque, any other religious centre, a school, shopping area or any other location, Mr Wahl said.

Police cordon off an area near the Islamic Center after reports of an active shooter

The attack came a week before Eid al-Adha, the major Muslim holiday known as the Feast of the Sacrifice, and ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

The mosque’s imam, Taha Hassane, said all staff, teachers and children at the site were safe.

“We have never experienced tragedy like this before. And at this moment all that I can say is, sending our prayers and standing in solidarity with all the families in our community here,” he said.

“It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship,” the imam added.

US President Donald Trump called the shooting a “terrible situation”.

“I’ve been given some early updates, but we’re going to be going back and looking at it very strongly,” he told reporters.

A woman speaks with police officers near the Islamic Center following the incident

California Governor Gavin Newsom said he was horrified by the attack, writing: “Worshippers anywhere should not have to fear for their lives.

“Hate has no place in California, and we will not tolerate acts of terror or intimidation against communities of faith,” he said on X, adding, “to the San Diego Muslim community: California stands with you.”

The Islamic Center is the largest mosque in San Diego County and is also home to Bright Horizon Academy, a school that provides Islamic education.

While mass gun violence has become a grim feature of public life across the United States, Muslim and Jewish communities have been especially on edge since US and Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Iran on 28 February, and Iran answered with its own attacks on Israel and several Gulf states, fueling a widening regional war.

In March, a 41-year-old Lebanese-born US citizen died by suicide after driving his truck into the largest Jewish temple in Michigan, opening fire on security guards and triggering an explosion with fireworks. The synagogue near Detroit, like the San Diego mosque, also housed a day school.