San Diego shooting shows disturbing trend of shooters copying acts of violence

Three men were killed in a San Diego mosque attack by two shooters who later died by self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The victims included a security guard, a mosque elder and founding member, and a neighbor whose wife worked at the center’s school. The shooters, aged 17 and 18, were reportedly embedded in online extremist networks and appeared to admire prior mass shooters who attacked places of worship, schools, and other public locations. A 75-page pre-attack document expressed hatred toward Muslims, Jews, Black people, LGBTQ+ people, women, and both US political parties. The attackers also livestreamed the violence and marked their firearms with white marker, tactics associated with online radicalization.

"The killing of three men at a San Diego mosque on Monday is the latest example of a disturbing trend in recent decades: hate-motivated shooters learning from and copying each other in acts of violence meant to push the nation toward a race war and, ultimately, societal collapse. The two San Diego shooters, who were 17 and 18, killed 51-year-old Amin Abdullah, a security guard at the Islamic Center of San Diego, 78-year-old Mansour Kaziha, a mosque elder and founding member of the center, and Nadir Awad, 57, who lived across the street and whose wife worked as a teacher at the center's school."

"The pair appears to have been deeply entrenched in online extremist networks and looked up to shooters who have killed dozens of people in US places of worship, schools and grocery stores. In a 75-page document the shooters wrote before Monday's attack, they expressed hatred for Muslim and Jewish people, for Black people, the LGBTQ+ community, women, and for both political parties in the US. In addition to the document spelling out their extremist views, they also livestreamed their violence and wrote on their firearms in white marker all common tactics among shooters who have been radicalized online."

"“Preliminarily, we're seeing two individuals who jointly radicalized into this digital space and then jointly radicalized into this moment of violence,” Kriner said. “In a Tuesday briefing, JD Vance, the vice-president, decried the shooting as reprehensible. The principle of religious violence is particularly disgusting, especially in the United States of America, he said. And as a devout Christian, I would say it's one of the most anti-Christian things and anti-American things that you could do.”"

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