{"id":813729,"date":"2026-05-22T03:59:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/813729\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T03:59:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:59:22","slug":"over-2000-gather-in-san-diego-to-mourn-three-men-killed-in-mosque-attack-gun-violence-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/813729\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 2,000 gather in San Diego to mourn three men killed in mosque attack | Gun Violence News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The three men killed in Monday\u2019s shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego were remembered as heroes at the memorial.<\/p>\n

Published On 21 May 202621 May 2026<\/p>\n

More than 2,000 people have gathered in a park in San Diego, California, to mourn a security guard and two other men murdered as they tried to stop this week\u2019s attack on the city\u2019s largest mosque<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mourners, including police officers in uniform, stood in rows for the Islamic funeral prayer, or Janazah, on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The bodies of the three men<\/a> \u2014 51-year-old Amin Abdullah, 78-year-old Mansour Kaziha and 57-year-old Nadir Awad \u2014 lay beneath cloth, underneath a white canopy.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is the greatest,\u201d the attendees chanted in Arabic, raising their hands.<\/p>\n

Many remembered the three men as heroes for delaying and distracting the two teenage suspects who opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, during school hours.<\/p>\n

They are set to be buried alongside one another later in the day at a nearby cemetery.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a message to everyone: Our community got hurt, but our community is standing strong and firm,\u201d said the centre\u2019s imam, Taha Hassane.<\/p>\n

He noted that people had flown in from across the United States to attend the ceremony, some coming from as far away as the East Coast.<\/p>\n

\"ImamImam Taha Hassane helps to lead a prayer service for the victims of Monday\u2019s shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego in California [Mike Blake\/Reuters]\u2018Today is just a really difficult day\u2019<\/p>\n

One mourner broke down in tears as she talked about Monday\u2019s shooting, which has put Muslims across the United States on edge during a time of rising Islamophobia.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is just a really difficult day for our entire community,\u201d said the mourner, who asked not \u200cto be \u2060named.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s attack is currently under investigation as a targeted attack. \u201cWe are considering this a hate crime until it\u2019s not,\u201d San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said shortly after the shooting.<\/p>\n

Police have indicated that the three victims\u2019 actions likely prevented further bloodshed.<\/p>\n

The shooting began approximately 11:43am Pacific Time (18:43 GMT), when Abdullah<\/a>, the centre\u2019s security guard, engaged in a gun battle with the teenage assailants.<\/p>\n

Police said he used his radio to order a lockdown at the mosque, which houses a primary school with 140 students.<\/p>\n

His actions have been credited with allowing children and staff time to hide in classrooms and closets.<\/p>\n

Awad, whose wife is a teacher at the centre, lived across the street from the mosque. He and Kaziha, the centre\u2019s handyman and cook, heard the gunfire and ran towards the centre to help. All three men died from their injuries.<\/p>\n

The assailants fled the mosque in their vehicle and were later \u2060found dead from self-inflicted gunshots, police said.<\/p>\n

Khaled Abdullah, 24, the security guard\u2019s son, said his family has drawn strength from the way his father died.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that he was on the front line, \u2060trying to defend kids and innocent people, that makes me feel good,\u201d Khaled told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday. \u201cCalling him a hero is the least we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MenMourners arrive at a prayer service for the victims of a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego [Mike Blake\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The three men killed in Monday\u2019s shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego were remembered as heroes…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":813730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[4219,4222,118,18462,50,365,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-813729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-crime","tag-gun-violence","tag-human-rights","tag-islamophobia","tag-news","tag-religion","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116616232072516796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}