Three people were killed when two gunmen opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego yesterday morning in an attack police are treating as an Islamophobic hate crime.
Evidence recovered from the scene points unambiguously to a racially and religiously motivated assault.
The victims were a mosque security guard and two staff members of the Al Rashid School, which operates on the centre’s grounds and provides Arabic, Islamic studies and Quranic teaching to children. No children were among the dead, and all were successfully evacuated.
Disappeared with guns
The two suspected shooters, identified by police as 17-year-old Cain Clark and 19-year-old Caleb Vazquez, both from San Diego, were found dead inside a BMW from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Clark’s mother had earlier phoned police, in a panic, to report that he and a friend had disappeared with her car and several guns.
Police were searching for them when the attack took place.
The nature of the evidence they left behind leaves little doubt about their motive: police found anti-Islamic writing in the vehicle, hate speech written on one of the firearms used in the attack, and a suicide note referring to racial pride.
The attack took place the week before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
Traumatic day
The Islamic Center of San Diego is the largest mosque in San Diego County, serving a congregation of more than 5,000 people. The centre announced it would remain closed until further notice, describing Monday as an extremely painful and traumatic day for its congregation and the wider community.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the attack and placed it in a broader context of escalating anti-Muslim hostility in the United States.
The organisation noted that the assault came amid rising anti-Muslim bias nationwide, with a record 8,683 complaints of discrimination and Islamophobia reported in 2025.
Synagogue attack
The mosque attack comes two months after a man drove a truck packed with explosives into one of the largest synagogues in the United States, Temple Israel in Michigan. There, the synagogue’s security training was credited with halting the attack. Children were inside the adjacent preschool at the time.
Yesterday’s attack recalls the 2019 Poway synagogue shooting in the same county, when the gunman also attempted to burn down a local mosque.
Particularly frightening
Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick said in a statement that Monday’s shooting was “particularly frightening in a moment when rising anti-Muslim hate and the gutting of anti-hate programs leave too many at risk and afraid.”
San Diego has now suffered targeted attacks on both its Jewish and Muslim communities within the space of a decade, underlining the persistent threat posed by far-right and white supremacist ideology to religious minorities in the United States.
