Two gunman opened fire at San Diego’s largest mosque Monday morning, killing three people before turning their weapons on themselves. Investigators have started to piece together a chilling trail of warning signs that came just hours too late.
Three adults were shot and killed outside the Islamic Center of San Diego shortly before noon on Monday. The two suspects have been identified as Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, were found dead of self-inflicted gunshot wounds in a car a few blocks from the mosque. Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime.
Among the dead was a security guard identified by a family friend as Amin Abdullah, a father of 8 who had protected the mosque for more than a decade and spent his final moments keeping the attack from being even worse.
“It’s fair to say his actions were heroic. Undoubtedly he saved lives today,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said at a news conference Monday evening.
“He wanted to defend the innocent, so he decided to become a security guard,” said Shaykh Uthman Ibn Farooq, who spoke with Abdullah’s son. The mosque remembered him as “a courageous man who put himself on the line of the safety of others, who even in his last moments did not stop protecting our community.”
At 9:42 a.m. Monday, Clark’s mother called San Diego police to report her son and a vehicle missing. As the morning unfolded, she kept calling back, piecing together more information each time. She told police that several of her firearms were missing, that her son was suicidal, that he was with a companion, and that both were dressed in camouflage.
Police opened a runaway investigation. They identified Clark’s phone near the Islamic Center at 12:05 p.m. Nine minutes later, shots were fired outside the mosque.
A suicide note found at Clark’s parents’ home contained writings about racial pride, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN. Hate speech was also scrawled on one of the weapons recovered at the scene. Police said no specific location was named in the note or on the weapon.
“There was no specific threat, especially no specific threat to the Islamic Center,” Wahl said. “It was more generalized — general hate kind of speech that covered a wide gamut.”
The 17-year-old suspect had been homeschooled since 2021 but was allowed to participate in athletics at Madison High School. He had no disciplinary history in recent years and had been on track to graduate.
The identities of the other two victims have not yet been released.
#BREAKING : The alleged gunmen in the deadly shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego have been identified as 17-year-old Cain Clark and 18-year-old Caleb Velasquez.
Authorities say at least one suspect allegedly took a firearm from a parent’s home and left behind a… pic.twitter.com/e3EkY2ZIsX
— upuknews (@upuknews1) May 19, 2026