Authorities have identified the three people who were killed in Monday’s shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which investigators are treating as a hate crime.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl identified the victims during a Tuesday press conference as Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad.
Abdullah, formerly known as Brian Climax, was the mosque’s security guard.
“His actions without a doubt, delayed distracted and ultimately deterred these two individuals from gaining access to the greater areas of the mosque where as many as 140 kids were within 15 feet of these suspects,” Wahl said of Abdullah, a father of eight. “Tragically, he died in that gun battle.”
Wahl said video surveillance showed Kaziha and Awad drew the suspects’ attention back toward the parking lot and away from the mosque. Kaziha and Awad were Islamic Center staff members.
“Both suspects were able to successfully corner them and kill both of them,” he said, adding that “all three of these victims did not die in vain.”
Imam Taha Hassane, the mosque’s director, spoke about the victims in an emotional speech at Tuesday’s press conference.
Hassane described the elderly Kaziha, who informally went by AbulEzz, as “the pillar of the Islamic Center of San Diego” since its inception in 1986.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do at the Islamic center without his daily assistance,” Hassane said.
Hassane also commended Awad for rushing toward the suspects during the attack. Awad lived across the street from the mosque and his wife is a teacher at its school.
Wahl said Monday that officers found the three victims dead outside of the center after responding to reports of an active shooter in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego.
Wahl said the two suspected shooters, identified by federal law enforcement as Cain Clark and Caleb Vazquez, were found dead inside a car on a nearby street from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Police initially identified the suspects as ages 17 and 18, respectively.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Remily said Tuesday that the suspects “appear to have been radicalized online to believe that they didn’t belong because of how they looked or where they worshipped. They couldn’t be more wrong.”
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The FBI’s San Diego Field Office is assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.
Remily said authorities have seized over 30 guns and a crossbow during the investigation.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation told MS NOW that anti-Islamic writings were discovered inside the vehicle where the teenagers were found. The sources also confirmed that investigators recovered a note left behind.
Remily did not describe the specific writings authorities found in the note but said they reflected “various ideologies outlining religious and racial beliefs of how the word they envisioned should look.”
“These subjects did not discriminate on who they hated,” Remily said.
At Tuesday’s press conference, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria asserted, “I want to be very clear: those two young men do not represent our city. These three Muslim men do.”
Vice President JD Vance said at a Tuesday press briefing that he and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, who is from San Diego, often visited a restaurant in close proximity to the Islamic Center and that the second lady may know people in the community.
Vance condemned the shooting and all forms of political violence, saying, “That type of violence in the United States of America is reprehensible and I encourage everyone to pray for them. May God rest the souls of the people who lost their lives.”
Mark Santia contributed to this report.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.