Two teen suspects who shot and killed three people at a San Diego mosque met online and developed a connection over their shared hatred toward different religions and races, according to authorities on Tuesday.
The San Diego Police Department and the FBI held a press conference to provide an update on the May 18 attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
The suspects, ages 17 and 18, left behind a manifesto reflecting their hatred, according to Mark Remily, special agent in charge of the FBI's Field Office in San Diego.
Search warrants have been executed at three locations linked to the suspects. 30 guns and a crossbow were seized from two of those locations so far, Remily said.
The FBI has also since obtained search warrants for electronic devices that the suspects had in their possession at the time of the attack.
The agency has been conducting extensive interviews with their family members.
According to authorities, a security guard’s quick actions prevented the two shooters from causing more harm during Monday’s attack.
Iman Taha Hassane, the mosque’s spokesman, told reporters that the security guard was hired around 2019 or 2020 and practiced emergency drills with students and teachers.
According to San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl, the suspects began to enter the front lobby of the mosque when they exchanged gunfire with the security guard.
The guard was ultimately killed outside the mosque. By the time the suspects went back inside, potential victims had time to rush to safety.
“The security guard had put out a lockdown protocol, the sound of the gunfire, all of the delay in that gun battle allowed everybody to get out of the common areas of the mosque and into areas of hiding so when they began to go through areas of the mosque, they were not running into more victims,” Wahl told reporters during Tuesday’s press conference.
The police chief also said surveillance footage shows the pair later looking out a window, with one of them pointing outside. Video documented the moment they both ran toward a door and then immediately opened fire in the parking lot on the two remaining victims.
The suspects were ultimately found nearby in a vehicle after killing themselves.