Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

San Diego Officials Give Update On Deadly Mosque Attack; Imam: Victim Mansour Kaziha Called 911, Was Killed Trying To Help; Police: Slain Guard Saved "As Many As 140 Kids"; San Diego Police Investigating Mosque Shooting As Hate Crime; 2 Victims Were Killed Trying To Draw Suspects Away From Mosque 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 19, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:01:07]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The Vice President at the podium, J.D. Vance taking questions from reporters, ask about everything from the war with Iran to that new almost $1.8 billion account that Democrats are today calling a slush fund for Trump allies.

And primary day in America. American voters picking the candidates that will appear on the ballot in November's midterm elections. That decision telling us a lot about the state of the unions today.

And a community shaken by tragedy, after three people were killed yesterday at San Diego's largest mosque. We're waiting a news conference with an update on the investigation.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

And let's go no to San Diego where authorities have an update on that shooting at the San Diego mosque.

Chief Scott Wahl, San Diego Police: Okay. Good morning, everybody. Let me start by saying we're going to try to cover many of the developments that we've learned over the last 24 hours. We're going to identify the names of the victims from yesterday's horrific event. But I -- what I want to really start with, explaining to everybody, particularly in our Muslim community.

I know it may not feel this way, but we are one community. You're going to see a visible presence at places of worship throughout our county. Law enforcement is banding together to make sure that there is a feeling of being safe at every place of worship.

I talked yesterday about the heroic actions of a security guard as -- at the Islamic Center. I had no idea how heroic those actions were. Individuals that did this heinous act ran past the security guard, most likely not knowing he was there. He immediately observed the threat to everybody at the mosque. He began to engage them with gunfire. Both suspects returned fire. You can see the security guard reached for his radio and put out the

lockdown protocol. The security guard then continued to engage in a gun battle with these two suspects. His actions, without a doubt, delayed, distracted, and ultimately deterred these two individuals from gaining access to the greater areas of the mosque, where as many as 140 kids were within 15 feet of these suspects.

[15:05:14]

Tragically, he died in that gun battle. The other two victims, as best we can tell with this video surveillance at the mosque, drew the attention of both of these suspects back out into the parking lot area, where they were unfortunately unable to flee. And both suspects were able to successfully corner them and kill both of them. While both suspects were outside, the massive response that was seconds away undoubtedly pushed both of the suspects to run back to their vehicle and flee the parking lot.

And I want to be very clear, all three of our victims did not die in vain. Without distracting the attention, without delaying the actions of these two individuals, without question there would have been many more fatalities yesterday. Here with me to tell you a little bit about these three victims is Imam Taha.

What you will not hear from us today is the names of these two suspects. Today is about our victims and our community coming back together again. And I -- I have to say the courage and the strength that Imam Taha has shown in the last 24 hours is beyond inspiring. And so, with that, let me bring up Imam Taha to talk about our three victims.

IMAM TAHA HASSANE, DIRECTOR, ISLAMIC CENTER OF SAN DIEGO: Thank you. Chief Wahl. Excuse me if I get a little bit emotional.

We call them our brothers in the community. We call them our martyrs and our heroes. Our security guard, Amin Abdullah. He goes by Amin Abdullah, Brian Climax. Such a lovely person. He never, never stopped smiling to anyone, to community members as well as our visitors (INAUDIBLE) not for him.

As Chief mentioned, the carnage will -- would be much worse. He's the one who stopped them, who slowed them down. If he did what he did and he sacrificed his life, the two suspects would have easily access to every single classroom. We're so proud of him. I envy him when I see messages about him literally from all over the world, talking about his heroism. This is our brother.

Second one, Mansour Kaziha, our elder. He goes by Abul Iz. He is the pillar of the Islamic Center of San Diego. He has been since 1986 when the community started breaking the ground to build the Islamic Center. He was there. He has been at the Islamic Center for the last 40 years, working nonstop.

In the last 22 years, being the imam and director of the Islamic Center of San Diego, I have never done anything without him. He is on the top of my list for people to call. Every single thing going wrong. Even the -- the light, you know, is not working. Brother Abul Iz, can you come and fix it? Anything that goes wrong, he was the handyman, he was the cook, he was the caretaker, he was the storekeeper. He was everything.

[15:10:09]

I don't know what I'm going to do at the Islamic Center without his assistance, his daily assistance. We miss him. The entire community miss him.

Our third brother, Nader Awad, our neighbor. He lives across the street from the Islamic Center. His wife is a teacher at the Islamic School. He is every single day at the Islamic Center joining the prayers every single day. When he heard the shooting, he rushed to do something to protect. And he joined Mansour Kaziha. They died together.

Mansour Kaziha was the first one who called 911 right before he was killed. And both of them, they tried to do something. They were hiding in the parking lot next to the kitchen. They tried to do something to protect. But unfortunately, they sacrificed their lives to protect the entire community inside the Islamic Center of San Diego.

I was there. I was upstairs. And I heard everything. I was hiding until the law enforcement came and escorted us outside the building. We have never, ever expected such thing to happen at the Islamic Center of San Diego. I mean, we are used to receiving hate mails, hate messages, people driving by and cursing and all that stuff. But such horrible crime. We have never expected this. Even though we tried throughout the years, everything we could do. Applying for Homeland Security grants. We have a fence, security armed guards, security cameras covering every single spot inside and outside the Islamic Center. What could we do more than this?

So, this is what my community is going through at this time. My community is mourning. My community is keeping our three heroes in their prayers. My community is around the three families trying to show support and sympathy. So,, this is what happened at the Islamic Center and these are our three heroes. Please keep them in your prayers. Thank you.

WAHL: Let me say that the collaborative response and approach to yesterday's event has been overwhelming. I know that we've had support from the U.S. Attorney's Office, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from the San Diego County District Attorney's Office, from every law enforcement agency here in San Diego County.

Investigators have been working through the night. And here to talk about some of the details and things that we've developed over the last 24 hours is Special Agent in Charge of the FBI here in San Diego, Mark Remily.

MARK REMILY, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI SAN DIEGO: Thank you all for coming. My name is Mark Remily. I am the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's San Diego field office. First, I want to reiterate our deepest condolences to the victims and

their families for the horrific incident they suffered yesterday. Violence for any reason will never be the answer. The victims who lost their lives yesterday were there to help others be part of a community that came together in peace.

Instead, they were confronted by teenagers who appeared to have been radicalized online to believe that they didn't belong because of how they looked or where they worshipped. They couldn't be more wrong.

The FBI takes very seriously any violence, and we refuse to give these subjects a platform to try to inflict their hateful beliefs onto others. We will not stand idly by and give their hate any credibility. We are thoroughly investigating this case to learn everything we can and will not stop until we get to the bottom of what happened and why. But we also want to learn how this happened and what we can do to stop future acts of violence.

[15:15:00]

FBI personnel are working diligently on this case to uncover everything we can about the subjects. I want to thank all the employees of the FBI, San Diego field office, and the U.S. Attorney's office who worked tirelessly throughout the night. Our SWAT team, our evidence response team, special agents, intelligence analysts, professional staff work side-by-side with our San Diego Police Department to collect every piece of evidence and review every piece of information we have so far.

Here's what I can share with you that we know at this time about the case. In coordination with the San Diego Police Department, we're currently conducting extensive interviews with the subjects' family and friends. We've executed three search warrants at residences associated with the subjects. During those searches, we found and seized numerous firearms from two of those locations, including numerous pistols, rifles, shotguns, ammunition, tactical gear, as well as electronics.

So far in this investigation, we've seized over 30 guns and a crossbow. We're continuing to process the information from all the locations, and we will provide more information when we're able to do so. We've also executed search warrants on the electronic devices the subjects had with them at the time of the incident, and we're in the process of obtaining additional search warrants for additional devices.

In the vehicle they used, we also identified writings and various ideologies outlining religious and racial beliefs of how the world they envisioned should look. These subjects did not discriminate on who they hated.

And let me be very clear. To anyone that thinks that they can end the world through violence, they are sorely mistaken. The FBI, our law enforcement partners, and our community are much stronger than you think, and we will always serve on the right of good. I want to thank all of our law enforcement partners who responded to

yesterday's shooting without hesitation. Truly, the quick work of the San Diego Police Department in tracking down the subject's vehicle and their instincts in intercepting the subjects, helped keep a horrific situation from being far worse.

We are grateful to all of our partners. We couldn't do it without them. We'll continue to work closely with all of our partners through this investigation until we get all the answers we all deserve. Again, we also want to thank the public for their patience, and we ask you to continue submitting information by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI or submitting any photos, digital evidence, or images you may have to fbi.gov/islamiccenterofsandiego shooting.

Lastly, our victim specialists are available, and we're getting reinforcements from headquarters today to assist anyone in this community that was impacted by the shooting. This is in addition to the resources the San Diego Police Department and the District Attorney's Office are already making available. With that, I'll turn it over to the Chief.

WAHL: At the forefront of today's message and, you know, our collective direction moving forward is to bring this community back together again, and here as the mayor and as a person that deeply cares about what is happening here in this city, Mayor Todd Gloria.

MAYOR TODD GLORIA (D-SAN DIEGO): Thank you, Chief, and thank you all for being here. Imam Taha, thank you so much for sharing your testimony and your witness and letting your fellow San Diegans know more about these three extraordinary men who, as you just heard, sacrificed their own lives in order to protect the children that were at that school and many others who could have otherwise been harmed by these two shooters.

I want to be very clear that those two young men do not represent our city. These three Muslim men do. Their heroism, their selflessness represents the very best of this city. Imam, you've said that your community is mourning, and I'm here to say very specifically, our entire city is mourning. We will mourn these three heroes as that what -- for what they are, heroes, and we will remember their sacrifice always.

I want to express my appreciation to our public safety professionals. Chief Wahl, you and your department have done an exceptional job, and I want the people of this city to know that we are protected by the very best. We fund them, we train them, and we equip them to do their jobs, and you saw yesterday they did their jobs, and they did it exceptionally well.

Under Chief Wahl's leadership, with the partnership of Sheriff Martinez and our District Attorney Stephan, as well as our partners at the state and federal level, what you see is a level of collaboration that you don't see anywhere else in this country, and that collaboration is what makes us one of the safest big cities in America. My hat's off to every officer who responded to that incident yesterday. [15:20:02]

I thank you for what you do. I have the most, utmost respect for what you do, and I thank you on behalf of all the residents of our city.

Lastly, I would like to say to my fellow San Diegans, this is a time for us to come together. This pain is unimaginable, and for many of our community, specifically our Muslim brothers and sisters, they need our care, our comfort, our concern, and our support. And I, for one, am here to make sure that they receive it.

Charitable funds have been established through the Islamic Center of San Diego to help support the families of these three men. There'll be other ways to support them and to show your support in the coming days, and I ask folks to take advantage of those opportunities to show what we are, which is America's finest city, a place on the U.S.- Mexican border, along the Pacific Rim, a place of extreme diversity, and all of us know that we are made better because of that diversity.

Now is a time not to divide ourselves, as the two murderers yesterday are attempting to do, but instead to come together as one San Diego, and now more than ever, to express our solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters in this time of great need. I know that we will do this because we've done it before, we will do it again. And lastly, again, in memory of the three men that were lost yesterday, they represent the very best of this city, let them always be remembered as the heroes that they are. Thank you.

WAHL: Okay, I'll go ahead and open up to some questions.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We've been listening to officials in San Diego give us an update on that deadly mosque attack yesterday that killed three people. We're going to continue monitoring the questions that these officials are getting, but we have learned in more detail about those who were killed, including Amin Abdullah, the guard who was murdered outside of the center.

The police chief there, Scott Wahl, saying that he had no idea how heroic Abdullah's actions were, saying that he engaged in a gun battle with the three perpetrators, that he radioed in an alert for the center to go ahead and lock down. He says that Abdullah's actions prevented the two perpetrators from getting access to the mosque when they were just about 15 feet away from 140 kids that were part of the school.

KEILAR: Yes, we saw some of them as they were leaving in the video and evacuating. And I think what was really driven home from this press conference was just how close this got to being -- I mean, this was horrific, but this could have been so much worse. Let's bring in Richard Kolko, who is a retired FBI supervisory special agent.

This could have been so much worse, Richard. And yet, as we are hearing from this community, I mean, it's devastating for them to have only by the grace of these three individuals who basically drew away fire, were they able to avoid an even greater tragedy? RICHARD KOLKO, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Clearly, but

everything worked, I want to say, and that's the training. We know that that security officer, he knew what his role was, and he acted without fear and quickly made decisions and -- and as we've heard multiple times, saved lives. The other two men involved also did what they could. And that's the -- that's an amazing thing.

Everybody talks big about, geez, what would I do if, you know, something like this happened to me? And you never really know how you're going to act under fire until you're under fire. And these three men proved what they could do under fire. And that is very commendable.

And then, we know that just like every school, unfortunately, these days, has to have these active shooter drills across the country. We saw those young children being escorted from the school in -- in -- in fashionable order, you know, following probably their training, probably drills that they went through. So, everything went as -- I don't want to say good, but everything went as good as it possibly could go yesterday. And thank goodness there was not a -- a breach of the school. And as you -- as everybody knows, would have been devastating to the children, staff, and instructors at the school.

SANCHEZ: Yes. We also heard from the FBI special agent in charge in San Diego, Mark Remily, talking about these perpetrators being teenagers who were radicalized online. He gave some details about the efforts in the investigation, including the seizure of dozens of weapons. I wonder what you made of those remarks and -- and what the investigation looks like now.

KOLKO: I just, you know, just as a person sitting here watching, I just don't know how somebody 17- and 18-year-old get to that level so quickly. I -- I know it's just what's a lot of it is social media, how they can become radicalized, how they become isolated from the world, from what possibilities wait for them had they not chosen to go this route. But the FBI is going to dig into this. They had the suicide notes, or at least a suicide note.

[15:25:09]

We know there was a good deal of research that these young men had done in the past. That's all very, very important. It was not a spur of the moment decision. And then, I think it'll be interesting to see when we learn what was their planning, what were they thinking, how long had they thought about doing this and it's just -- FBI is going to be digging into that. They're going to do all that research on the computers. We've heard this a hundred times as well. What is that digital footprint? Who are they talking to? How did they get radicalized? How long have they been doing that? Did somebody else know about this or have some inkling?

You know, I commend that mom for picking up the phone and calling the police. Too bad it couldn't have been a couple hours earlier or a couple days earlier, and maybe there could have been a different result. But this has just begun, and the investigation is the investigation. You know, they're going to figure out what happened here. The whole point is, is there anything that they can do to identify what made these young men choose to go this route? And is there anything they can do to share that information with members of not only the San Diego community, but across larger swaths of area to hopefully prevent something like this from happening again?

KEILAR: Yes. Richard Kolko, thank you so much. As we are learning here from officials, they say they didn't discriminate these two individuals, and they're not saying their names, on who they hated. They're sort of describing them as quite hate-filled, as they are pursuing this investigation into their writings, into multiple devices, and still seeking additional search warrants here. We'll be right back.

(Begin VT)

ODA SHANAH, 9-YEAR-OLD STUDENT: I heard like a bunch of bad stuff, like gunshots. And plus, I went out -- I went inside the closet with my whole class. We heard like 12 or like 16 gunshots. And then, the SWAT team said, if you open up, and they opened the door, and they went inside. They told us to put our hands up and form a big line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)