Three men were killed and two teenage suspects died of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds in an attack on the largest mosque in San Diego County on Monday, in what police are investigating as a hate crime.

The shooting happened just before noon at the Islamic Center of San Diego, in the city’s Clairemont neighborhood about nine miles north of downtown. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said officers responded to the mosque on the 7000 block of Eckstrom Avenue at 11:43 a.m. after multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire.

When officers arrived, they found three adult men dead in front of the Islamic Center, Wahl said. One of the men was a mosque security guard whom the chief credited with playing a “pivotal” role in preventing additional bloodshed.Around the same time, police received calls of gunfire a few blocks away. A landscaper working in the area was shot at but was not hit, Wahl said.

Moments later, officers found a vehicle in the street with both suspects inside. The two, believed to be 17 and 19 years old, were dead from what appeared to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Investigators believe no officers fired their weapons during the response.

“Because of the Islamic center location, we are considering this a hate crime until it’s not,” Wahl told reporters.

No motive has been released, and the identities of the victims and the suspects have not been made public. The FBI’s San Diego field office said both suspects were juveniles, while local police identified them as 17 and 19.The Islamic Center includes the Al Rashid School, which offers courses in Arabic, Islamic studies and the Quran. Imam Taha Hassane, the mosque’s director, said in a video message posted to the center’s social media accounts that all children and staff at the school were unharmed and had been evacuated.

Aerial television footage showed more than a dozen children holding hands as officers escorted them from the parking lot. Dozens of police vehicles lined the streets around the white-domed mosque, which sits in a residential neighborhood of homes, apartments and strip malls with Middle Eastern restaurants and markets. Authorities established a reunification site for families at a Seventh-day Adventist church on Hathaway Street, and Sharp Memorial Hospital activated its disaster protocols to receive patients.

A retired resident who was eating lunch nearby told reporters he heard roughly 30 shots in three bursts. “I heard at least a dozen shots, and they sounded like (they came) from semi-automatic weapons,” said the witness, who identified himself as Andre. “There was a pause and then another dozen shots and again a pause and then another dozen shots.” He noted that the timing of the attack on a weekday spared a larger crowd. “It’s a good thing that it didn’t happen on a Friday, because all the streets would be full of people.”

Between 50 and 100 officers responded inside the facility, according to police.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria visited the scene and said the city would spare no resource in protecting religious institutions. “Hate has no place” in San Diego, Gloria said. “To our local Muslim community, our prayers are with you.”Gov. Gavin Newsom was briefed on the attack, his office said, and the state Office of Emergency Services is coordinating with local agencies.

President Donald Trump was also briefed, the White House said.

The Los Angeles Police Department and the New York Police Department both said they were increasing patrols at mosques and other houses of worship as a precaution, though neither department reported a known threat in its city.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)