Friends, family and strangers are reeling after a mass shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, an attack being investigated as a hate crime. Three people were killed at the county’s largest mosque, a vital neighbourhood gathering spot and place of worship. Two suspected teenage shooters, aged 17 and 18, reportedly died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Outside the mosque, 13-year-old Maya stood beyond the police tape, watching armed officers lock down the area. She said her grandfather worked there as a security guard. ‘Like it doesn’t feel real,’ she said, tapping her phone nervously. She learned her grandfather was safe – he was not scheduled to work on Monday – but she knew the three victims from family gatherings and Ramadan. One was a security guard whom she remembered as ‘really sweet’. ‘He sacrificed his life to save everyone else’s,’ she added.
Taha Hassane, an imam and director of the centre, said: ‘We have never experienced a tragedy like this before … It is a house of worship. It’s not a battlefield.’ One man, Jesus, who had started attending the mosque about a month ago, was planning to visit at the time of the shooting but had a last-minute job interview. ‘All I see is police running with guns and ARs, and people crying,’ he said. He vowed to return: ‘The Islamophobia going on in this country – that’s not going to stop me from praying five times a day.’
Sixteen-year-old Tommy, from Madison High School a mile away, said the school went into lockdown when shots were fired. The school reportedly had an online course attended by one of the suspected shooters. Terrified parents reunited with children at a temporary ‘reunification centre’ nearby, as political and community leaders condemned the attack.
