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Reports of Active Shooter at Islamic Center of San Diego. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 18, 2026 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We have breaking news. Police say they're responding to reports of an active shooter at Islamic Center of San Diego.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: These are live images of that center where you see a sizable law enforcement presence outside. Let's go to CNN's Josh Campbell, who's been following this developing story for us. Josh, what are you hearing?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, so this is still breaking. The information that we have right now is limited. But as you mentioned, we are hearing from police that there are reports of an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

[15:35:00]

This is in the northern part of the city. We've seen from our affiliate coverage here, KGTV, you can see dozens and dozens of law enforcement officers that responded there, including, it looks like, at least two SWAT vehicles. You can see the tactical officers that are going around that area.

We also saw people being brought out of that location as well, including children that were being walked out of there as they tried to evacuate. No indication right now on any number of victims. No information right now on a suspect.

It does appear, and I'll warn people watching in the San Diego area, take your cues from law enforcement. But just looking at this image, it appears a little bit more static now, where you don't see those officers rushing in, you know, very urgently. It appears that they're going methodically around that building. So it's still unclear whether they have someone in custody or whether this is, in fact, a valid report of an active shooter.

They're calling it a report right now. The San Diego mayor saying that he's aware of the situation. He's continuing to receive updates.

Emergency personnel are on scene. He's telling people to please avoid that area and follow the instructions of public safety officials.

And just to describe this mosque, this is the largest mosque in San Diego County. According to that organization, they say that their mission is to serve the religious needs of San Diego Muslims and work with the larger community to serve the less fortunate, to educate and to better our nation. That, according to the mosque's description.

Again, still no indication right now on victims. No information on a particular suspect. But we are, of course, in this heightened time of political violence and threats here in this country. So when we mention a house of worship, obviously that raises concerns.

We're awaiting new information from authorities. But again, as we speak right now, at least reports of an active shooter. Authorities now appear to be going through that building, bringing people out.

KEILAR: All right, Josh, if you can stand by for us. Let's bring in former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. Ed, as you're seeing these pictures and we've seen law enforcement going in there single file with their long guns.

Tell us what you saw in that response there.

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, it's a clear tactical response to what appears to be a shooting situation. They have armored personnel carriers there and a massive, massive police response. So it appears from the look of it that something is going on there.

Those units are using clearing techniques to go from room to room to make sure that that they're safe, that these rooms are safe. Hard to say how many people they've evacuated from the scene, but it certainly looks like you have an actual incident.

SANCHEZ: And, Ed, I wonder, do you gauge what officials are doing here as a response to a situation that is under control or one that is still active? Because it seemed at one point that they were raising their weapons and screening a certain area. So this appears to still be unfolding as we're covering it, right?

DAVIS: It does appear that way. There are small tactical units of officers going door to door with their weapons, which is an indication that there's still danger. So sometimes it takes a while to clear a situation like this.

If there was a shooting and there's a shooter holed up in an area that they can't get into, they're going to have to clear everything around it and evacuate as many people as possible while at the same time they're dealing with whatever the threat was. So hard to say from outside. But this looks very much like a like a very active scene.

KEILAR: A very active scene. So what are we looking for going forward here? Because, I mean, let's just be clear, Ed, we have very limited information as we are getting these reports of an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

We know that the governor has been looped in. The mayor has been looped in. But what are we looking for going forward, Ed?

DAVIS: Well, you know, in a large sense, if the threat has been abated, they'll start to peel off some of those patrol cars on the outer perimeter. That's the thing I look for. Is anybody exiting?

It doesn't appear to be the case right now. And the other thing to look for are these tactical movements that you're seeing on the camera right now. When you've got small units of police officers doing room clearing, then there's clearly still a threat going on.

The things you hope for is that the officers drop their weapons, holster their weapons, start to back off a little bit. That's an indication the scene is stable. It doesn't appear as though that's the case there.

It looks like there is very much a threat and they're dealing with that threat right now, despite the fact that it's been a while. It takes a while to have that many police cars respond to the scene. So, as I said, massive response of police, tactical vehicles, room clearing techniques.

[15:40:00]

These are all the earmarks of an active scene.

SANCHEZ: Ed and Josh, please stay with us. We're going to take a quick break as we gather more information.

DAVIS: Room clearing techniques. These are all the earmarks of an active scene.

SANCHEZ: Ed and Josh, please stay with us. We're going to take a quick break as we gather more information about these reports of an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego. An enormous law enforcement presence, as you can see in these images taken moments ago.

We'll stay on top of this story and bring you the latest after a quick break. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: All right, we're following our breaking news. You can see it there, the huge police response in San Diego. There are reports of an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

[15:45:00]

Let's bring in Michael Alcazar, retired NYPD detective. Michael, we're now being told -- or hearing from authorities that this is an active but contained situation. What does that mean?

MICHAEL ALCAZAR, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE: So, they're telling me that they breached the location. Law enforcement has breached the premises and they potentially may have identified where the shooter is. So, we might be dealing with a barricade shooter.

So, the goal here is to extract all victims. Hopefully, they can move them safely and quickly while they contain the shooter. SANCHEZ: We're still working to get details on who those victims may be and what status they might be in. We have not heard many details from law enforcement at this point. In fact, we should go to Josh Campbell because, Josh, I understand you might be learning some new information.

CAMPBELL: Well, as you were just mentioning there as far as the containment, what that appears to tell us is that there's no longer a threat beyond the area of the police cordon that we see around that area. What's happening right now on the screen is very important for us to watch. We always glean a lot of information by watching the posture of law enforcement, seeing what they're doing.

You're seeing there in the parking lot there are officers that are staged. But what you're seeing here on the screen, and I want to point out for our viewers that we put this on a delay, that's for officer safety here, is they're going around that area doing what are called room clearings. They're essentially going.

They'll attempt to open a door. You have the first officer there that either opens or breaches the door, and then the rest of the team files in. And this is something that we can likely expect them to do around this large complex.

This is something that is often the case whenever you have an active shooter situation. We don't always see it for ourselves, but one of the things that law enforcement has to do before they rule out any ongoing threat is to clear that entire facility, and that's what we're seeing right now. The major question we don't yet know is if there is indeed a suspect. If this was indeed an active shooter.

Authorities to this point have been calling it a reported active shooter. What is the status of a potential shooter? Is the person in custody? Was there an exchange of gunfire? That's all the detail right now that we are still waiting to hear.

We do know that over the course of about the last 20 minutes they've been bringing numerous people out of that house of worship. This is a place where Muslims come to worship according to the mosque. Five times a day they'll come. They have special sermons as well.

So it's a very active place where you have people from the Muslim faith in and around the area coming there on any given day, and we saw them coming out, including children. But now, again, we're waiting for details on the particular status of a suspect if that's indeed the case. And, of course, are there any victims? That is something that we're still waiting to hear as well.

The final point I'll note is that often in these very active situations people obviously want information. We want to know. But just look at the law enforcement posture there. Their focus right now, as we can see, is on trying to determine what happened and trying to clear that area. So the information may follow second to that, but obviously we're continuing to ask authorities about the latest.

We're waiting for additional information. All the local state government officials are saying they've been briefed on the situation right now. Everyone is monitoring and waiting for the specific details about the nature of what actually occurred.

KEILAR: Yes, and we are being told that we're seeing, actually, in some of these pictures, really nervous parents who are lining the streets. They've obviously gotten word of what has happened at this center that also is home to the Islamic School of San Diego. So you have children of all ages, presumably, in that center.

It's a school that is housed on the campus of this center. So a lot of parents incredibly concerned. And there's a reunification center the San Diego Police Department is reporting.

In the off chance that any parents are listening to this, on the Twitter account for the San Diego PD, you can find that information for where that is, that reunification center.

Ed, that tells you something. If they're establishing the reunification center. Ed Davis, if you can join us. They're establishing this reunification center. What does that tell you at this point in time?

DAVIS: The reunification center is a vital component of one of these incidents. While the police officers conduct their searches and secure the areas, there are always concerned parents and relatives of the potential victims that are descending on the scene. So the police officers on the perimeter need to stop the advance on the building by concerned people and have a safe place for them to go to congregate so that, first of all, they're out of the line of fire.

[15:50:00]

But second of all, they're getting updated, immediate information from the scene so that they can be relieved that their relatives are going to be OK. It's a way to put some control in a very chaotic situation, but it also gives you the ability to provide people with reassurance or sometimes tragic information.

So there will be resources sent there on both sides of that equation so that people will be ready to deal with whatever eventuality occurs.

SANCHEZ: Yes, I just want to let our viewers know that we're sort of looping some of the images we captured moments ago. These are not live images in part because there is concern that in an active shooting situation, somebody who's involved in this can flip on CNN and potentially see the scene outside. So these are images taken moments ago, but we understand that this is still an ongoing and active, but as you see on your screen, contained situation at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

I want to go back to Michael Alcazar because you were discussing a moment ago what it means that this is now an active but contained site. Take us through the actual process of clearing rooms in this building and identifying where an active shooter might be.

ALCAZAR: So law enforcement is trained to push towards where the shooter is, right? And it sounds like by the reporting, they might have identified a shooter. As Josh mentioned before, they don't stop there.

They contain one shooter. They're going to continue searching the building. They're going to go room by room, hallway by hallway to identify any possible potential bad actors, and I'm assuming that's what they're doing now.

And that's it. And the idea is to contain the shooters, if not take them out, and then protect the safety of the victims on scene.

KEILAR: And, Michael, when you say contained, there are certainly a range of possibilities for what that could mean. In terms of the threat level, does it tell us anything?

ALCAZAR: I mean, if the shooter's contained, that doesn't mean he's not armed. He could just have barricaded himself. That's a situation that usually happens.

So if he's contained, the law enforcement, the squad, the emergency services responded are just keeping him at bay until he surrenders or they take him out. So contained doesn't necessarily mean it's a safe situation. It's still volatile and fast-moving.

So police are doing their due diligence to maintain safety for everybody while at the same time keeping the shooter contained and at the location. If he's barricaded in a room, perhaps, so they're going to keep him there until they evacuate everybody.

SANCHEZ: Ed, one of the things that strikes me about these images is the number of police vehicles outside. You can see that for a long stretch, they dot the road that leads into and seemingly surrounds the Islamic Center. I wonder if you can glean something from the size of the response -- if it gives you an indication of exactly what may have happened inside the center.

DAVIS: Yes, I've worked with the San Diego police over a long period of time, and it's an enormous police department. And the jurisdiction runs almost down to the Mexico line all the way up to La Jolla. So this is right in the core of that geographic area or on the northern end of it.

But there are hundreds and hundreds of police cars available to them. And when something like this happens, everybody goes. It's just sort of raising the alarm.

Every available resource in the city will head towards here, and I think that's what you're seeing. The question is, how far along in the process are we? Some of the offices and the tactical vehicles appear to be standing down a little bit.

As Michael said, that might be a case of the shooter being isolated in a room where he has no easy gunshot capability, and they're just trying to wait him out. Or he may have been killed. He may be in custody.

It's hard to say. This is still active. Ambulance is coming in.

It's hard to be clear on exactly what's going on inside that building.

KEILAR: Yes, a range of possibilities. But what we do know is this is a mosque in San Diego, the Islamic Center of San Diego, a very large mosque that is also home to a school, the Islamic School of San Diego. And we have learned from police that there was an active shooter situation.

We're now being told, Boris, it's active but contained. But what we're watching here is just a huge police response, and we're getting word about parents lining the street, incredibly concerned because there are a number of kids, obviously, who would be going to school here.

[15:55:00]

SANCHEZ: Yes, as we noted a moment ago, the campus includes the Islamic School of San Diego. From our experts, based on the movements that we've seen from this helicopter video, it appears that law enforcement is in the process of attempting to clear rooms.

And as you heard a moment ago, active but contained. It could potentially mean that they've zeroed in on where the shooter is, though they're not ruling out the possibility that there is perhaps more than one perpetrator. A lot of news to get to.

Of course, we're going to keep you updated with the latest as "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt begins after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Breaking news at this hour. Right now, an active shooter reported at an Islamic center in San Diego.

Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. We're going to continue to follow this ...

END