Two teenage gunmen opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego in California yesterday, killing a security guard and two other men outside the mosque and then taking their own lives.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said local authorities and the FBI are investigating the attack on the largest mosque in San Diego County as a hate crime.
However, so far authorities have not made public a precise motive or a specific incident that may have led to the armed attack.
All children who were at the day school inside the mosque complex were found safe after the shooting, which began around 11:40 a.m. local time.
During an evening press conference, Wahl announced that the mother of one of the perpetrators had called police about two hours before the attack, reporting that her son, whom she described as having suicidal tendencies, had left the house taking three guns and her car.
According to police, the two young men were wearing camouflage clothing. Immediately after the report, police launched a search and increased patrols near a shopping mall and the high school of one of the teenagers, as a preventive measure, until the calls came in about the attack on the mosque.
The police chief refused to provide details on the contents of a letter that, according to him, was found by the young man's mother.
The attack occurred just a week before the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
