Witnesses Describe Shock After San Diego Mosque Attack That Killed Three

Maya, 13, stood just beyond yellow police tape Monday, watching heavily armed officers lock down the area around the Islamic Center of San Diego, where three people had been shot and killed hours earlier. The mosque is the largest in the county and serves as a neighborhood gathering spot and place of worship for Maya’s family and many others.

The seventh grader, speaking with her mother’s permission, tapped her nails nervously against her phone. Her teeth chattered in the 70-degree California heat as more people gathered at the scene, the gravity of the situation sinking in.

“Oh my god,” she said, watching officers patrol and fielding FaceTime calls from friends. “Like it doesn’t feel real.”

Across San Diego and broader southern California, friends, family and strangers are reeling after the latest American mass shooting, which authorities said is being investigated as a hate crime. The suspected shooters — two teenagers, ages 17 and 18 — reportedly died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

Outside the mosque and the police tape, emotions were raw and unfiltered Monday afternoon, in a setting that felt both horrific and business-as-usual.

Terrified parents reunited with their children, many of whom attend an on-site school, at a temporary “reunification center” nearby. News crews set up shots, making sure the mosque was visible in the background. Local officials held press conferences a few blocks from the mosque at regular intervals.

For Maya, the shocking event hit close to home — she said her grandfather works at the mosque as a security guard. As news broke and her friends texted in flurries, she immediately thought of him. After calling her mother, the middle schooler learned her grandfather was safe; he had not been scheduled to work Monday.

“It’s such a crazy thing, like he always works during this time. So just thinking like he could have been hurt today …” Maya trailed off, choking up.

Maya said she knew the three victims from family gatherings and from Ramadan, when she would see them every day. Among those killed was another security guard, whom Maya remembered as a “really sweet” person.

“He sacrificed his life to save everyone else’s,” she added.

In the wake of the shooting, statements of support poured in and political and community leaders rushed to condemn the attack.

“We have never experienced a tragedy like this before, and at this moment, all what I can say is sending our prayers and standing in solidarity with all the families in our community here and also the other mosques, and all the places of worship in our beautiful city should always be protected,” Taha Hassane, an imam and director of the center, said Monday. “It is a house of worship. It’s not a battlefield.”

Outside the mosque, a man who preferred to go only by the first name Jesus said he had started attending the Islamic Center of San Diego about a month ago, when he moved to California from New York. He planned to stop by the mosque Monday at noon, around the time of the shooting, but had a last-minute job interview instead.

“And then I get a WhatsApp text saying, ‘Don’t come to the mosque, shots fired,’” he said. Jesus sped over anyway. “All I see is police running with guns and ARs, and people crying. And I just didn’t know how to react. I just want to be there for the community in any way I can.”

Jesus said he will return to the mosque as soon as it reopens.

“The Islamophobia going on in this country — that’s not going to stop me from praying five times a day, it’s not going to stop me from standing with my community. It’s not going to stop me from advocating for our people,” he said. “If anything, it’s making me want to do it more.”

Many others without personal ties to the mosque also gathered around the chaotic scene Monday.

One 16-year-old named Tommy had just come from Madison High School, about a mile from the site of the shooting — and reportedly the school that one of the suspected shooters had also attended through an online course.

When the shots were first fired nearby, the high school went into lockdown, Tommy said. He and a handful of students and staff headed to what seemed like the closest secure place — the cafeteria kitchen — where they locked the doors and waited for instructions. He estimated about half an hour passed before they could leave.

Tommy said he has become somewhat desensitized to the frantic, terrifying moments that accompany American shootings. The teenager is originally from Vietnam and has been in the United States for about a year and a half. Monday’s lockdown was already the second his school has had this year alone.

“It goes with the stereotypes that I have heard about America,” he said, looking out at the police tape, armed officers and flashing lights.