Police sought teen suspects before San Diego mosque shooting

Police on Tuesday lifted road closures around the Islamic Center of San Diego as investigators finished some phases of their on-site work in the aftermath of a shooting. Early on Monday afternoon, police found five deceased people, including the two suspects, in front of the mosque and nearby. The FBI was investigating the shooting as a potential hate crime, San Diego police said.

Police said Monday evening that prior to the shooting they were already searching for the suspects, who were 17 and 18. The mother of the 17-year-old told police Monday morning that he ran away with her car and several weapons. She believed he was suicidal, according to police. The mother also told officers that her son left with a companion and both were wearing camouflage. Police searched a school and attempted to track the car’s license plate before receiving calls about an active shooter at the mosque roughly two hours after the mother first reported that her son was missing.

When officers arrived, the suspects appeared to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds after shooting the three victims. Police were temporarily withholding the names of both the suspects and the victims while they notified families.

What do we know about the possible motive for the shooting? Police said that hateful rhetoric was involved and that at least one suspect left a note containing generalized hate speech, but the note didn’t identify the mosque as a target. The New York Post reported that officers found Nazi imagery and anti-Islamic writings in the suspects’ vehicle and on their weapons.

The suspects also fired shots at a man doing landscaping work near the mosque, but he survived unwounded, possibly because he was wearing a helmet that deflected bullets, police said.

Dig deeper: Read Stephen Kloosterman’s initial report on the shooting.