SAN DIEGO – Police were yesterday investigating a shooting in the US state of California as a hate crime after a pair of teenage gunmen killed three people at a mosque complex. 

Tearful women emerged from a centre set up to reunite families caught up in the shooting, and yellow police tape blocked access to the Islamic Centre of San Diego, where the victims were found on Monday.

Police said emergency response teams found the victims, all men, outside the sprawling complex, before later finding the shooters, aged 17 and 18, dead in a car from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

TV footage from a helicopter showed armed response teams gathered outside a building, with one unidentified person lying in a pool of blood. “We are actively investigating this as a hate crime,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl told reporters. “There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved.”
The Islamic centre describes itself on its website as the largest mosque in San Diego County, which is in southern California.

After a short period of lockdown when authorities advised area residents to stay inside, San Diego police announced that the threat at the centre had been “neutralized.”

“We received a call of an active shooter at the Islamic centre. Within four minutes, officers arrived on scene and observed immediately three deceased victims out in front,” Wahl said.

“We immediately began to deploy with an active shooter response into the mosque and adjacent school,” he said, adding that police had received calls about more gunfire nearby, where a landscaper had been shot at but not hit. 

Police found a vehicle in the middle of the street a few blocks from the centre with the shooters dead inside.
“The suspects at this point appear to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. There were no officers involved in firing their weapons,” Wahl said.

NBC identified the shooters as Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, citing three law enforcement officials.
Wahl said a security guard at the Islamic centre was among the three victims, adding that his response had helped prevent a deadlier attack. 

–Nampa/AFP