Here's the latest
• The victims: Three people, including a security guard, were killed in a shooting at San Diego’s largest mosque. The guard was heroic and “saved lives,” Police Chief Scott Wahl said.
• The suspects: Two teens who appeared to have died from self-inflicted wounds were found in a car near the Islamic Center of San Diego. A law enforcement source and police dispatch identified one of the suspects as Cain Clark. Hours before the attack, the 17-year-old’s mother told police her son and car were missing, along with three weapons.
• The investigation: Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime. Hate speech was scrawled on one of the weapons, law enforcement officials told CNN. A suicide note that contained writings about racial pride was also found, according to the officials.
Here’s what we know about the investigation
Three men were killed in a shooting at San Diego’s largest mosque, which also houses a school, on Monday.
Near the Islamic Center of San Diego, two teen boys who appeared to have died from self-inflicted wounds were found in a car. One of those suspects was identified as 17-year-old Cain Clark.
Authorities are investigating the attack as a hate crime. Hate speech was scrawled on one of the weapons, law enforcement officials told CNN. A suicide note that contained writings about racial pride was also found, according to the officials.
Here’s what else we know about the investigation:
- Victims not yet identified: One person killed was a security guard and father of eight who deeply cared about his community, according to his friend. Congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar said he had known another of the victims since he was six years old.
- Second location: Law enforcement received calls about another location as they were responding to the shooting at the mosque. A landscaper there may have been shot, with the bullet striking a helmet and saving his life, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.
- Suspect’s mother alerted police: Hours before the attack, Clark’s mother told police her son and car were missing, along with three of her weapons. She said her son was suicidal and with another person, both dressed in camouflage. Those details led investigators to believe the teen may be a threat to others, Wahl said.
- Motive under investigation: There was no specific threat to the Islamic Center in the note and weapons of one of the suspects, Wahl said. Without detailing the hate speech they found, Wahl said it “covered a wide gamut.”
- FBI on scene: Special agents, task force officers, evidence response personnel, victim specialists and others are on the scene, said Mark Remily, of the FBI San Diego field office.
- State prosecutors join investigation: State prosecutors are also involved in the investigation. It is common for prosecutors to join investigators after an attack to help identify whether anyone associated with a suspect might face potential legal consequences.
Read more about how the attack unfolded here.
Get the latest on what we know about the suspects here.
CNN’s Josh Campbell, Taylor Romine, Elizabeth Wolfe, Aditi Sangal, Kristen Holmes, Zoe Sottile, Donald Judd, Blake Ellis, Isabelle Chapman, Casey Tolan, Scott Glover and John Miller contributed to this report.
Security guard killed in mosque shooting identified as Amin Abdullah
The security guard who was killed in yesterday’s shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego has been identified in a fundraiser campaign as Amin Abdullah.
The campaign, organized by both the Islamic Center and the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic relations, has so far raised nearly $1.4 million for Abdullah’s family.
Abdullah was a father of eight children, his friend Sam Hamideh told CNN yesterday.
The fundraising campaign for Abdullah is being hosted on LaunchGood, a GoFundMe-like website that describes itself as “the world’s leading Muslim fundraising platform.”
The organizers said they are awaiting family approvals before disclosing the names of the other victims of the shooting.
CNN’s Emma Tucker, Kyung Lah and Norma Galeana contributed to this reporting.
Shooting at San Diego mosque comes amid rising reports of anti-Muslim discrimination
The deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, which police are investigating as a hate crime, comes amid reports of increasing Islamophobic incidents across the US.
Last year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations received 8,683 anti-Muslim discrimination complaints – the highest figure since it started compiling the data in 1996 – the group said in its annual report. The discrimination complaints have surged since the war in Gaza began in 2023, the group has said.
While police in San Diego said there was no specific threat to the mosque in a suicide note left by one of the suspects, it did contain writings about racial pride, multiple law enforcement sources told CNN.
CAIR’s San Diego chapter said it condemned the “horrifying act of violence” that left three people dead.
“No one should ever fear for their safety while attending prayers or studying at an elementary school,” Tazheen Nizam, the executive director of CAIR-San Diego said in a statement.
Here’s what we know about Cain Clark, a suspect in the San Diego mosque shooting
One of the suspects in Monday’s shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego was identified by a law enforcement source as well as audio from police dispatch as Cain Clark.
Hours before the attack, the 17-year-old’s mother told police her son and car were missing, along with three weapons. She said her son was suicidal and with another person, both dressed in camouflage, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.
The number of weapons he took from the home led investigators to believe the teen may be a threat to others, Wahl said.
Clark and another male suspect, age 18, were later found in a car near the shooting site and appeared to have died from self-inflicted wounds. Authorities say the shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.
Outside their home in the early hours of Tuesday, Clark’s grandparents, David and Deborah Clark, told CNN they were “trying to process this” and said they were “very sorry for what happened.”
Clark had attended the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts before his family enrolled him in online learning, according to James Canning, a spokesperson for San Diego Unified School District.
Because Madison High School was considered his neighborhood school, Clark was still able to participate in campus activities and competed on the school’s wrestling team, Canning said. Clark, however, did not participate in school activities this year.
A former wrestling teammate who asked not to be identified said Clark appeared to be finding community through the team.
The teammate said he never heard Clark express Islamophobic or racially motivated views and never witnessed violent behavior.
Read more about the suspects here.
CNN’s Blake Ellis, Isabelle Chapman, Casey Tolan, Scott Glover and John Miller contributed to this report.
A snapshot of gun violence in 2026
The United States has recorded at least 4,765 deaths tied to gun violence so far in 2026, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
A recent analysis of the data shows the number of gun-related deaths in the first quarter of 2026 is the lowest in the last dozen years –– with a decline of almost 500 shooting deaths from the same period last year, according to The Trace, an independent news operation dedicated to covering America’s gun violence epidemic.
More than 500 of those killed by guns this year died in mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which like CNN defines a mass shooting as injuring or killing four or more people, not including the shooter. The US has seen at least 151 mass shootings so far in 2026.
Islamic Center of San Diego thanks first responders and says it will close until further notice
The Islamic Center of San Diego said it would be closed until further notice as its community mourns Monday’s shooting.
“This has been an extremely painful and traumatic day for our congregation, students, staff, and the broader San Diego community,” the center said in a statement on its website.
The center said counseling and other support resources would be made available and linked to a “Victim and Family Support Fund.”
Congressional candidate who knew victim says shooting is "an American tragedy"
When Ammar Campa-Najjar saw the news about a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, it hit close to home, he told CNN, because he attended the school at the mosque growing up.
“When I heard that there was where they had gone, where the gunman had gone, I remember where those places are, what those classrooms rooms were,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. The director of the Islamic Center said that all kids, teachers and staff were safe.
Later speaking to CNN’s Lynda Kinkade, he said he had known one of the victims since he was six years old.
Campa-Najjar said he first went to the school at the age of six, for first and second grade. “Then I lived in Gaza for a couple years and came back to that school and finished middle school.”
Campa-Najjar, who is running as a Democrat in a nearby California congressional district, said the “entire country should be in mourning.”
He called on all Americans to “step up and speak out and say that this kind of hate has no place.”
Police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime, though the specifics of the attackers’ motives are still unclear.
State prosecutors join mosque shooting investigation
In addition to local and federal authorities, state prosecutors are also involved in the investigation into Monday’s deadly mosque shooting, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement.
The DA’s office “deployed its special prosecution and investigation team to support the San Diego Police Department and law enforcement partners in getting all the answers needed to keep our community safe from further harm.”
Additionally, the office’s Victim Services/Crisis Response Team “is actively working with victims, families and community to provide services needed at this critical juncture,” the statement continued.
Why it matters: Although two suspects in the incident are deceased, it is common for prosecutors to join investigators after an attack to help identify whether anyone associated with a suspect might face potential legal consequences.
Family and teammates describe 17-year-old suspect
Relatives of the 17-year-old suspect in the shooting at a San Diego mosque on Monday told CNN they were in shock, describing Cain Clark as a “good kid.”
In an interview outside their home, David and Deborah Clark, his grandparents, told CNN “we’re trying to process this,” and said they were “very sorry for what happened.”
The couple declined further comment and walked inside their house.
A former wrestling teammate, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation, told CNN that he remembered Clark as a homeschooled student who had been trying to make friends and fit in with the team.
“He seemed like he was a good kid,” said the former teammate, who only knew him from attending wrestling practices and meets together. “He didn’t seem like he would do something like that.”
The teammate said he had never heard Clark expressing Islamophobic or racially motivated sentiments or seen him do anything violent.
San Diego shooting suspect identified as high school wrestler enrolled in online schooling, officials say
One of the suspects in the shooting at a San Diego mosque on Monday was a 17-year-old high school wrestler whose family had put him in an online schooling program.
A law enforcement source and police dispatch identified him as Cain Clark.
Clark attended Kate Sessions Elementary School and San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, said James Canning, a spokesperson for San Diego Unified School District.
His family then enrolled him in an online schooling program called iHigh Virtual Academy in 2021, Canning said.
Since Madison High School was considered Clark’s neighborhood school, he was able to participate in activities and sports there, and he was a member of the school’s wrestling team from 2024 to 2025, Canning said. Clark had not participated in any school activities this year, he added.
The school’s wrestling team posted on Instagram congratulating Clark in January 2024 for taking first place at a tournament and winning an award.
Clark had been on track to graduate and had no disciplinary history except in elementary school, when he punched someone in the leg in 2015, Canning said.
Mourning community members console each other as investigators comb shooting site
Community members in the Clairemont neighborhood gathered to mourn and console each other as authorities combed through evidence in the deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, Reuters video showed Monday.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl offered his condolences to the Muslim community in a news conference the same day.
How the deadly shooting at San Diego’s largest mosque unfolded
Three people have been killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego –– an attack authorities are investigating as a hate crime. The suspects, two male teenagers, were found dead in a car nearby.
Here’s how authorities say the events unfolded:
- 9:42 a.m. Roughly two hours before the shooting was reported, police received a call from a mother who reported her son missing and that several of her weapons and her vehicle were missing from her home, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said. The mother said her son was suicidal and with another person, both dressed in camouflage, Wahl said.
- 9:42 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. Police escalate the situation into a larger threat assessment, with investigators using license plate readers to try to locate the woman’s son and his companion. Officers are also sent to Madison High School due to a possible connection to one of the suspects.
- 11:43 a.m. Police are notified of an active shooter at the Islamic Center, and officers nearby respond immediately.
- During the shooting: A woman who lives across the street from the Islamic Center heard the shooting while she was eating lunch. While she was on the phone, she saw a uniformed officer get shot. “He received two, three impacts, and then he fell. And 911 asked me if he was ok, and I said yes, he just stood up,” she told CNN. “I told them to hurry up because there’s so many kids (at the center),” she said.
- 11:47 a.m. Officers arrive on scene and find three deceased victims outside the mosque. They begin an active-shooter response and enter the mosque and an adjacent school. Going from room to room, they breach doors in search for suspects.
- Around the same time: A landscaper is shot at from a vehicle a few blocks away from the Islamic Center. A bullet appears to have deflected off the landscaper’s helmet and saved his life, the police chief said.
- Moments later: Officers find a vehicle with the two male suspects inside, both deceased. Authorities later say the suspects appeared to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Deadly shooting at San Diego mosque is being probed as a hate crime. Here’s the latest
After three people were killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, the city’s largest mosque, law enforcement said the attack is being investigated as a hate crime.
Local and federal investigators still face a slew of unanswered questions about what led up to the attack in the Clairemont neighborhood, the city’s police chief said.
Here’s what we know so far:
- Victims not yet identified: Three adult men were killed in the shooting, and their identities will be released in the days ahead, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said. One of those killed was a security guard whose actions were described as “heroic.” Officials are still determining whether the security guard engaged the suspects, but his actions helped to “save lives today,” said Wahl. The guard was a father of eight who deeply cared about his community and sacrificed his life to protect people inside the mosque, according to his friend Sam Hamideh.
- Suspects found dead: The two male suspects, who were ages 17 and 18, were found dead in a car near the mosque from “self-inflicted gunshot wounds,” Wahl said. The vehicle was found “in the middle of the street” with the suspected shooters dead inside, Wahl said.
- Hate speech on weapon: One of the suspects in the shooting took a firearm from his parents’ home and left a suicide note that contained writings about racial pride, multiple law enforcement officials briefed on the latest told CNN. Hate speech was scrawled on one of the weapons that was used in the shooting, and while the specifics of the language were not immediately clear, Wahl said it “covered a wide gamut.” He added the writings included no specific threat to the Islamic Center, saying it was “more generalized.”
- Runaway juvenile call: Police first received a call about a “runaway juvenile” Monday morning, which triggered a “larger threat assessment picture,” Wahl said. The teenager’s mother reported her son was suicidal, that three weapons were missing from the home, and her son was with a “companion” dressed in camo, he said. As San Diego police searched for two teenagers, they learned one of them was associated with Madison High School and alerted school police, Wahl said.
- Second shooting: Law enforcement received calls from a second location as they were responding to the active shooter situation at the mosque, Wahl said. A landscaper there may have been shot, with the bullet striking a helmet and saving his life, he added.
- Copious evidence: The investigation will be aided by copious evidence, including security cameras at the mosque, said Wahl. Law enforcement is carrying out search warrants to follow any leads and information to determine how the shooting unfolded and what could have been done to prevent it, Wahl said.
- FBI on scene: The FBI is on site at the mosque, including special agents, task force officers, evidence response personnel, victim specialists and others, said Mark Remily, of the FBI San Diego field office. Bomb techs have cleared the vehicle where the suspects were found dead, Remily said. Local law enforcement partners are working closely with the FBI to gather evidence, he said.
Security guard was father of 8 who "sacrificed his life" to protect others, friend says
The security guard who was one of three people killed in the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego was a father of eight children who deeply cared about his community and sacrificed his life to protect people inside the mosque, said his friend Sam Hamideh.
A school teaching kindergarten to third grade is situated inside the mosque, said Hamideh, whose middle child was in class during the shooting. Every day, the security guard would run to the car when Hamideh or his wife dropped off their child, he said. The morning of the shooting, the security guard told Hamideh’s wife, “Say hello to Sam,” he said. “I didn’t know it was his goodbye. That was crushing.”
After calling his child’s teacher, the security guard was the second call Hamideh made after learning of the shooting, he said. “I know that he knew he was sacrificing his life for the kids,” Hamideh said of his friend of four years. “Because if he didn’t take that bullet, they would easily walk up the stairs.”
Teenage suspect took three weapons from mom's home, chief says
One of the teenage suspects took three weapons from his mother’s home before investigators say he carried out an attack on the Islamic Center in San Diego, the city’s police chief said.
The 17-year-old’s mother told police her son and car were missing along with “several of her weapons” Chief Scott Wahl told reporters.
The number of weapons he took from the home lead investigators to believe the teen may be a threat to others, as well, the chief said.
“One person that’s suicidal is not going to take three weapons from a location,” Wahl said.
The concerning details triggered “a much bigger threat assessment” as they searched for the teen’s whereabouts, he said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and other public officials condemn shooting
Public officials have rushed to condemn today’s fatal shooting at San Diego’s largest mosque.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he and his wife were “horrified by today’s violent attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego, where families and children gather, and neighbors worship in peace and fellowship.”
“Worshippers anywhere should not have to fear for their lives,” his statement continues. “Hate has no place in California, and we will not tolerate acts of terror or intimidation against communities of faith.”
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani – who made history as the city’s first Muslim mayor – likewise said he was “horrified” by the attack.
“Islamophobia endangers Muslim communities across this country,” he said in a post on X. “We must confront it directly and stand together against the politics of fear and division.”
US Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and US Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California also condemned the shooting.
Suspect's hate speech did not specifically include threat to the mosque, police chief says
There was no specific threat to any place mentioned in the note and weapons of one of the suspects who attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego, Police Chief Scott Wahl said.
Wahl also spoke about the reality that all religious facilities across the United States and around the world are aware of safety risks associated with them.
“It’s an unfortunate reality of the world we live in today. But I would say absolutely, everybody feels that insecurity,” he added.
The FBI pledges to "leave no stone unturned"
The FBI is working closely with law enforcement partners to gather evidence after a fatal shooting at San Diego’s largest mosque Monday, Mark Remily, the special agent in charge of FBI San Diego, said at a news conference.
“We are in the process of interviewing family and friends of the subjects, and evidence tech evidence response teams are gathering all the evidence from the scene for review,” Remily said. “We will process everything as quickly, but as meticulously as we can.”
He added that bomb techs have cleared the vehicle where two teenage suspects were found dead.
“We will continue to coordinate with our law enforcement partners and work closely with them for as long as it takes until we understand what happened,” Remily said. “We will leave no stone unturned.”
Authorities won’t yet release identities of 3 victims of mosque shooting, chief says
Authorities will not yet release the identities of the three people who were killed in a shooting today at San Diego’s largest mosque but will do so in the days ahead, said Police Chief Scott Wahl.
“We’ve just basically notified family of those victims. We’re not going to put out their identity right now,” Wahl said at a news conference.
“We’re trying to protect kind of what we have. There’s more work to be done, and we want to make sure that we’re preserving some of that for the moment,” he continued.
Police "actively investigating" shooting as a hate crime
Police are “actively investigating” the fatal shooting at a San Diego mosque as a hate crime, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said at a news conference.
“There are details and information that we are investigating as to exactly what those, what the hate speech or the hate words were that were conveyed,” he said.
“But yes, it’s being investigated as a hate crime. At this point, there was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved.”
