IN BRIEF
- The Islamic centre targeted is the largest mosque in San Diego county.
- Police discovered the bodies of two teenage males in a vehicle, dead from apparently self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
A tragic shooting occurred at a mosque complex in California, resulting in three fatalities on Tuesday, AEST. Authorities later discovered two teenage suspects deceased in a vehicle, both having succumbed to self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Responding to the incident, police located the victims outside the expansive Islamic Center of San Diego. The alleged shooters, aged 19 and 17, were subsequently found dead.
Aerial footage captured by TV helicopters depicted armed response units converging on the scene, where one individual was seen lying in a pool of blood.
The Islamic Center, recognized as the largest mosque in San Diego County, was surrounded by numerous patrol cars during the incident in southern California.
Following a brief lockdown with authorities advising residents to remain indoors, the San Diego police confirmed that the situation at the center had been “neutralized.”
“We received a call of an active shooter at the Islamic centre. Within four minutes, officers arrived on scene and observed immediately three deceased victims out in front,” San Diego police chief Scott Wahl told reporters.
“We immediately began to deploy with an active shooter response into the mosque and adjacent school,” he said, adding that police had received calls about more gunfire nearby, where a landscaper at work had been shot at but not hit.
All of the children who were attending a day school that is part of the mosque complex were accounted for and safe after the shooting, Wahl said.
He said the FBI was called in to assist in the investigation of the incident, which the police chief said authorities were treating as a hate crime.
Place of worship targeted
Outside the Islamic centre, police found a vehicle in the middle of the street with the alleged shooters dead inside.
“The suspects at this point appear to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. There were no officers involved in firing their weapons,” Wahl said.
Police said that a security guard at the Islamic centre was among the three victims killed. The identity of the other two fatalities was not immediately clear.
The attack came the week before the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and the annual Hajj pilgrimage of Islamic faithful to the holy site of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The imam at the mosque, Taha Hassane, said that all the staff, teachers and children at the mosque were safe.
“We have never experienced tragedy like this before. And at this moment all that I can say is, sending our prayers and standing in solidarity with all the families in our community here,” he said.
“It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship,” the imam added.
US President Donald Trump described the shooting as a “terrible situation”.
“I’ve been given some early updates but we’re going to be going back and looking at it very strongly,” he told reporters.
State governor Gavin Newsom was briefed on the apparent attack, his press office said.
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