Lockdown Protocol Saves 140 Children in Mosque Attack
San Diego police credit a slain security guard’s rapid lockdown response with preventing further casualties during a targeted shooting.
- By Jesse Jacobs
- May 21, 2026
New details have emerged regarding Monday's fatal active shooter incident at the Islamic Center of San Diego, where a security guard's rapid implementation of campus lockdown protocols is credited with saving more than 140 children.
According to reports by BBC News, the San Diego Police Department identified the three victims killed outside the facility as security guard Amin Abdullah, and mosque community members Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad.
Police Chief Scott Wahl stated that Abdullah, an armed guard who served the facility for over a decade, engaged in a gun battle with the suspects at the entrance. NBC News reported that despite being struck by gunfire, Abdullah reached for his radio to initiate a facility-wide lockdown. Security footage reviewed by law enforcement showed the suspects moving room-to-room inside the center, but occupants had already successfully barricaded themselves in safe locations.
An analysis of the incident published by school violence researcher David Riedman notes that the active shooting phase lasted less than one minute. Riedman reported that the two teenage suspects wore camouflage and tactical body armor, carrying multiple weapons and ammunition stolen from a parent's home. The attackers also livestreamed the assault online to an online extremist community and left behind a manifesto expressing hatred for Muslim, Jewish, Black, LGBTQ+ and female communities, as well as both U.S. political parties.
The two other victims, Kaziha and Awad, inadvertently drew the shooters' attention in the parking lot. Wahl noted that the collective resistance and distractions caused by the staff members ultimately forced the suspects to flee the campus.
As detailed by NBC News, the incident began earlier that morning when a parent called authorities to report her vehicle, firearms and suicidal son missing. Police were tracking the suspects near a local high school and shopping mall just before the active shooter calls emerged from the mosque at 11:43 a.m. Riedman noted that one of the suspects participated on his high school's wrestling team and was a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu student who had experienced severe bullying from peers.
Federal and local law enforcement have since recovered a 75-page online manifesto and executed search warrants yielding more than 30 firearms, ammunition and tactical gear from residences linked to the suspects. BBC News reported that FBI Special Agent Mark Remily confirmed the writings outlined religious and racial beliefs regarding how the subjects envisioned the world.
The two suspects died from self-inflicted wounds in a vehicle a short distance from the mosque following the attack. San Diego officials and the FBI continue to investigate the incident as a targeted hate crime.