Slain security guard of California mosque engaged gunmen in shootout, hailed as hero

CALIFORNIA, USA – The security guard slain at the Islamic Center of San Diego was hailed on Tuesday, May 19, as a fallen hero who sacrificed his life to keep 140 school children inside the mosque safe by engaging two gunmen in a shootout that deterred the teenage suspects and helped thwart their attack.

Authorities also disclosed that the 17- and 18-year-old assailants, who took their own lives shortly after the shooting on Monday, May 18, were believed to have met online and were apparently “radicalized” in hate-related ideology on the internet.

Late on Tuesday, CNN reported that it had obtained and reviewed graphic video purported to be footage of the mosque shooting recorded and livestreamed by the two suspects, including a final clip that appears to show one of the gunmen shooting his companion and then himself.

A day after the gun violence, police, FBI, and other officials held a news conference focused on the three victims, all men affiliated with the mosque, who were slain in the attack and credited with putting themselves in harm’s way to save others.

The security guard, Amin Abdullah, 51, also known to friends as Brian Climax, immediately recognized the two youths as a threat and opened fire on them as they ran past him outside the mosque, according to San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl. The suspects then paused to return fire, Wahl said.

Abdullah wound up fatally shot in the parking lot, along with two other men who distracted the suspects after they stormed into the building, drawing their attention through a window, thus luring the two teens back outside, Wahl said.

Two men lured gunmen outside

The two other victims, mosque elder Mansour Kaziha, 78, and Uber driver Nadir Awad, 57, a neighbor whose wife worked as a teacher at the school there, were cornered and shot to death in the parking lot by the gunmen when they re-emerged.

In the midst of the confrontation, it was Abdullah who transmitted the radio call that activated a security lockdown, which Wahl said also prevented further bloodshed there.

The gunfight and the security alert gave others in the building time to take shelter behind locked doors, Wahl said, while Kaziha and Awad coaxed the suspects out of the building. Kaziha also was the first person to call 911 emergency before he was shot, police said.

Minutes before officers from around California’s second most populous city converged on the mosque, the two suspects fled by car. They were found dead in their vehicle a short time later several blocks away, apparently from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said.

Wahl singled out Abdullah for special praise of his “heroic action,” adding that at first, “I had no idea how heroic those actions were.”

“His actions, without a doubt, delayed, distracted, and ultimately deterred those two individuals from gaining access to the greater areas of the mosque where as many as 140 kids were within 15 feet of these suspects,” Wahl said.

Taha Hassane, the imam and director of the Islamic Center, called all three of the victims “our martyrs and our heroes.”

Addressing a separate news conference at a local park, the security guard’s daughter, Hawaa Abdullah, offered prayers and paid a tearful tribute to her father as a man who doted on his family and was so dedicated to his job that he would not break for meals when he was on duty.

She called on people of all faiths to honor him by coming together and being kind. “He stood against any form of hate,” she said.

Purported livestreamed video of shooting

Police and FBI have said that they are investigating the attack as a hate crime but have declined to offer details about a possible motive.

“What I can say is [the suspects] definitely had a broad hatred towards a lot of folks,” FBI special agent Mark Remily told reporters.

Although authorities have not officially named the two suspects, the gunmen have been identified as Caleb Vasquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, a Department of Justice official told Reuters.

Remily said one of the gunmen left behind a manifesto, but he declined to characterize it in detail.

CNN reported that a 75-page manifesto from the gunmen citing racist, Islamophobic, and antisemitic ideology, as well as “incel” culture, was under scrutiny by investigators.

The cable network said it had obtained a copy of the document from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which studies extremism, along with a video the two gunmen appeared to have recorded during their attack and posted to the internet in real time.

Summarizing the video in writing according to an AI-generated description of the footage, CNN said White supremacist symbols were visible on the two attackers’ guns and clothing as they are seen moving through the Islamic Center, with one firing a rifle before they walk back outside, fire a pistol, and then appear to stand over someone lying in a pool of blood.

CNN said it geolocated the final moment of the video to the neighborhood where police found two teens dead from gunshot wounds inside the getaway car. The footage ends with the driver stopping the vehicle, then appearing to shoot his passenger before shooting himself, according to the network.

A copy of a video that appears to match CNN’s written summary began circulating online on Tuesday. – Rappler.com