Teenagers behind mass shooting in San Diego rushed at mosque ‘fully armored’ | San Diego mosque shooting

The two teenage attackers responsible for a mass shooting at the Islamic Center in San Diego, California, rushed toward the mosque “fully armored” with handguns and rifles, authorities said.

A security guard fired and hit one of the shooters, according to mosque members, but the attacker continued to charge. The guard also alerted administrators at the Islamic Center school, telling them to go into lockdown, before he was shot and killed. “Without him… The carnage would be much worse,” said imam Taha Hassane. “He sacrificed his life.”

Two other victims were on the phone calling police when they were killed, according to a witness who shared what he saw in an Instagram post from the Islamic Center. Police rushed to the scene and eventually found the suspected shooters near the mosque, dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

The shooters had met and radicalized online, according to the FBI. At a news conference Tuesday, Mark Remily, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego office, said investigators had uncovered a “manifesto” expressing “broad hatred” toward various races and religions.

Investigators also found 30 firearms and a crossbow after searching two residences as part of the investigation. Remily said agents also seized tactical equipment, ammunition and electronic devices.

“We also identified writings and various ideologies describing religious and racial beliefs about what the world they envisioned should look like,” he said. “These subjects made no discrimination as to who they hated.” He added that it was still too early in the investigation to say whether the Islamic Center was the sole or specific target of the shooters.

On Monday, the mother of one of the shooters alerted police shortly before the shooting that her son, a 17-year-old high school student, was suicidal and potentially armed. Police were searching for the 17-year-old man and his 18-year-old friend in an area near the mosque when they opened fire.

Remily said the guns used by the shooters were registered to one of their parents. “Exactly how they… were able to obtain them is still under investigation,” he said. The FBI has opened a tip line and is still seeking more information about the shooters and their motivations.

One of them had been enrolled in a San Diego Unified School District virtual learning academy, according to a district spokesperson, and was scheduled to graduate from high school this year.

During the shooting, five public schools near the Islamic Center were closed. Hassane, the imam and director of the Islamic Center, said the center also practices active-shooter lockdown drills several times a year, which he said undoubtedly protects people.

“It worked, you know,” he said. “The children’s lives were saved. The lives of all the students at the school were saved, and we are very grateful.”