San Diego’s mosque shooting is now being investigated as a hate crime after authorities said one of the teen suspects left behind a suicide note focused on “racial pride” before the deadly attack.
Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, are accused of opening fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego around 11:40 a.m. Monday, killing three people, authorities said. Investigators said the pair stole guns and a car from Clark’s mother’s home before heading to the mosque.
Hours before the shooting, Clark’s mother called police and reported her son was suicidal and might be armed with her weapons, officials said. Officers were already searching for the teen when the attack unfolded.
After the shooting, Clark and Vazquez were found in a vehicle several streets away with self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said. Authorities also said one of the guns recovered from the vehicle had “hate speech” written on it, according to sources cited by the Los Angeles Times.
Police sources told the outlet that when officers searched Clark’s home about two miles from the mosque, they found a suicide note “writing about racial pride.” Images from the scene where the two teens were found dead also showed a gas can with a sticker resembling a Nazi SS logo, alongside a shotgun nearby.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said his department received the call from Clark’s mother hours before the attack. She told officers she noticed several guns were missing and said she had seen him and a companion wearing “camouflage outfits,” Wahl said.
Wahl said Clark’s mother warned that her weapons were missing but did not report a specific threat against the mosque.
“There was no specific threat, especially no specific threat to the Islamic Center,” Wahl said.
“It was just general hate kind of speech that I think covered a wide gamut.”
Police said officers reached the Islamic Center within minutes and found three people dead outside the building, including security guard Amin Abdullah. Witnesses said the guard was shot as children who had been outside were rushed into the building.
Several blocks away, a landscaper was also shot at but was not hit, authorities said. Minutes later, police received another report of shots fired down the street. Clark and Vazquez were later found dead inside a vehicle on Salerno Street, several streets from the Islamic Center.
Three adult men, one of whom was a security guard, were killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, authorities said.
ABC News’ Trevor Ault reports. https://t.co/MNcnC8Bb06 pic.twitter.com/zoao6dDBd0
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Clark was enrolled in a virtual learning academy in the San Diego Unified School District and was expected to graduate this semester, school officials said. He had previously wrestled at Madison High School but moved to online learning after spiraling into “hate speech,” officials said.
Clark’s grandparents, David and Deborah Clark, told CNN they were stunned by what happened and said they were “trying to process this” and were “very sorry for what happened.”
The shooting came at the start of Dhu’l-Hijja, one of the holiest months on the Muslim calendar, when millions of Muslims worldwide embark on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The Islamic Center of San Diego is the largest mosque in the county and has about 5,000 members, officials said.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria condemned the attack and raised concerns about anti-Muslim hatred.
“Hate has no home in San Diego. Islamophobia has no home in San Diego,” Gloria said. “An attack on any one of our communities — on any San Diegan because of who they are, what they believe, or how they pray — is an attack on all of us.”
San Diego Unified Superintendent Fabi Bagula also denounced the violence.
“Hate has no place in our community or schools,” Bagula said, adding that “every student family and community member deserves to feel safe, valued and able to worship and gather without fear.”
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