It was the suspect’s mother who alerted him to the disappearance of his weapons
One of the suspects in the deaths of three people took three guns from his mother’s home before allegedly carrying out an attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, the city’s police chief said.
The 17-year-old’s mother told police her son and car were missing, along with “several of his weapons,” Chief Scott Wahl told reporters.
The number of weapons he took from the residence led investigators to believe that the teenager could also pose a threat to other people, added the police chief, cited by CNN.
“A suicidal person is not going to take three guns from one location,” said Wahl.
The troubling details triggered “a much broader threat assessment” as authorities sought to locate the teenager, he added.
What is known about the attack:
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When they arrived at the mosque, officers found three people dead, Wahl said, all adult men. One of the victims was a security guard who “played a crucial role in preventing the situation from getting much worse”, he added.
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Authorities arrived at the scene four minutes after the first emergency calls, the police chief said. Up to 100 officers searched the building, often having to break down doors, Wahl said.
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At the same time as they were responding to reports of a shooting at the mosque, authorities also received calls about another shooting a few blocks away, Wahl explained. A gardener who was at the scene was shot at, but was not hit.
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Shortly afterward, officers found two males, believed to be the suspects, dead inside a vehicle at a third location, according to Wahl. Both were teenagers, aged 17 and 19.
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The suspects “appear to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds,” Wahl said.
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Police are treating the attack on the Islamic Center as a hate crime “until proven otherwise,” the police chief said.
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Local authorities are working closely with the FBI, which has deployed “special agents, joint team elements, evidence collection specialists, and victim support specialists,” among others, to the scene, according to Mark Remily of the FBI’s San Diego office.
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What happened before the attack remains under investigation, Wahl said. At this stage, the police chief stated that it appears that there were no shots fired by officers.
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The Islamic Center had surveillance cameras, which will be among the evidence analyzed by investigators, Wahl added.
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President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom have already been briefed on the shooting. Trump called the incident a “terrible situation” during an event at the White House.
*Elizabeth Wolfe, Aditi Sangal, Kristen Holmes, Zoe Sottile and Donald Judd contributed to this report
