Two teenagers gun down 3 in San Diego mosque, end lives

AP San Diego

Two teenage shooters opened fire at a San Diego mosque on Monday and killed three men before killing themselves a few blocks away, police said.

The attack at the Islamic Centre of San Diego is being investigated as a hate crime, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said at a news conference at a neighbourhood park across from the mosque.

He said the “circumstances that led up to this” would come out in the days ahead.

Wahl said later that officers had been talking to one of the teenagers' mothers earlier in the day after she had contacted police around 9:40 am to say her son was missing along with multiple weapons and her vehicle.

“She was beginning to develop a bigger picture as to what she was dealing with and was conveying that to our folks, and we were trying to put that together and get out in front of this as quickly as we could,” Wahl said.