Two teenagers killed three men at a San Diego Mosque on 18 May. They later turned their guns on themselves inside a getaway vehicle.
Police found the bodies outside the Islamic Center of San Diego at 11:43 local time. The gunmen are dead.
The attackers were aged 17 and 18. Officers discovered them blocks away with self-inflicted wounds after they shot at a nearby landscaper.
One victim was a father of eight. He worked as a security guard at the center and blocked the gunmen from entering the main hall.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl praised the guard’s actions during a news conference. He called the man heroic.
"Undoubtedly he saved lives today," Wahl said. The guard’s intervention likely stopped a much larger massacre from unfolding.
Children were in class when the shooting started. The campus houses the Al Rashid School, which teaches religion and language courses.
Aerial footage from Monday showed rows of children holding hands as armed officers escorted them through a car park. The scene was chaotic.
Two hours before the attack, a mother called the police to report her son had stolen several guns and her car.
She told dispatchers the boys wore camouflage and seemed suicidal. But the 17-year-old left a note that suggested a different motive.
The note contained hate speech. Investigators now treat the killings as a hate crime because the suspects targeted the largest mosque in the county.
While officers cleared rooms inside the mosque, reports came in of another shooting targeting a landscaper working a few streets away.
A bullet reportedly deflected off the worker’s hard hat. He survived the encounter. No one else was hit.
One witness heard up to 30 shots from what sounded like a semi-automatic weapon. He called 911 from his lunch table.
"It is a house of worship, not a battlefield," said Imam Taha Hassane. The community is currently preparing for the holy festival of Eid al-Adha.
Governor Gavin Newsom said the state will not tolerate terror. President Trump called the shooting a "terrible situation" from the White House.
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