May 18 (UPI) — Three people were killed in a shooting late Monday morning at the Islamic Center of San Diego, authorities said. Two teenage suspects in the shootings were found in a car near the scene, dead from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds, law enforcement officers said at a press conference in late afternoon. Authorities said that they’re considering the mosque shootings a hate crime. The first reports of the shooting came in about 11:30 a.m. local time, San Diego’s KNSD-TV reported. Up to 100
police officers arrived at the scene and found three people dead outside the mosque, CNN reported. Officers searched the building and eventually cleared the scene, later finding the bodies of the suspects, ages 17 and 19, in a car nearby. One of the people in the shooting was a security guard at the mosque, and his actions likely kept the death toll from being much worse, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said. The Islamic Center of San Diego is in the Clairemont neighborhood of
the city. It’s the largest mosque in San Diego.
Islamic Center of San Diego, hate crime, mosque shooting, Clairemont, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl, security guard, teenage suspects