The three men who were killed when two teenage gunmen opened fire at San Diego mosque were identified Tuesday as a security guard and two community members who risked their lives for others. Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad were outside the Islamic Center of San Diego when the 17- an d 18-year-old shooters approached the mosque at about 11:43 a.m. Monday, according to the San Diego chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. Abdullah, a father of eight and caregiver to his father, was a security guard who had worked at the mosque for more than a decade, according to a family friend. As the gunmen ran toward the mosque and a school filled with nearly 150 students, Abdullah opened fire, San Diego police Chief Scott Wahl said Tuesday. Security guard Amin Abdullah was shot and killed outside a mosque in San Diego on May 18, 2026. “You can see the security guard reach for his radio and put out the lockdown protocol, Wahl said. “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,” Wahl said. Surveillance video showed the gunmen running through empty rooms, likely cleared due to Abdullah’s alert, Wahl said. A security guard since about 2020, the action he took was part of the Islamic Center of San Diego’s drills and preparations, Imam Taha Hassane said; the gunmen would have easily gained access to classrooms if it weren’t for Abdullah. The shooters then peered through a window and may have spotted Kaziha and Awad, which drew them away from the mosque and towards the parking lot, where they were cornered and killed, Wahl said. Kaziha was the first to call 911. “I think that is a significant point for everybody to understand is when they drew, obviously inadvertently, drew the attention of those gunmen out of the door and out into the parking lot, where they subsequently died, what was coming seconds away was hundreds of police officers that everybody that was there yesterday could see,” Wahl said. The gunmen “immediately ran to their vehicle and fled the scene at that point. I truly believe that’s what saved the 140 kids that were just inside.” Kaziha, who went by Abu Aziz, was a community leader who had managed the mosque’s store for nearly four decades, CAIR said. Kaziha “has been here since 1986 when the community started breaking the ground to build the Islamic Center,” Hassane said. “He was the handyman, he was the cook, he was the caretaker, he was the store keeper. “In the last 22 years, being the imam and director of the Islamic Center of San Diego, I have never done anything without him.” Awad lives across the street from the Islamic Center. His wife is a teacher at the school and when he heard the shooting, he rushed toward it, alongside Kaziha, Hassane said. “They were hiding in the parking lot next to the kitchen,” Hassane said. “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.” A fundraiser organized by the Islamic Center of San Diego to support Abdullah’s family had raised nearly $2 million by Tuesday. Fundraisers have also been created for Awad and Kaziha’s families. “In plain words: Amin put himself between the gunmen and everyone inside. Teachers, staff, and more than a dozen children were walked safely out of that building by police that afternoon, hand in hand. They are alive because Amin did his job,” the fundraiser said. Hassane said, while the mosque has received hate messages over the years, they have never experienced something as horrific as Monday’s shooting. “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? Hassane said. “So this is what my community is going through at this time. My community is mourning.” The center’s Islamic school canceled classes for the next few days. The campus would be closed for the next few weeks for a planned break for the Muslim holy holiday Eid al-Adha. The shooting was being investigated as a hate crime because of hate-related speech connected to the shooters, identified as Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, San Diego police said. The two were found dead in a vehicle blocks away from the mosque. San Diego police began searching for the suspects after a tip from Clark’s mother, who was concerned her son was suicidal and had stolen her guns and vehicle. Police learned the son was believed to be wearing camouflage and was with a friend, and a more urgent search began. After tracking the teenagers for hours, a 911 call sent law enforcement racing to the mosque in Clairemont, about 10 miles from downtown San Diego. The center is the largest mosque in San Diego County and includes the Al Rashid School, which offers courses in Arabic language, Islamic studies and the Quran for students ages 5 and up, according to its website. “As a result of this horrific attack, hundreds of children are now traumatized, along with the community at large who fear for the safety of their families,” CAIR said in a statement Tuesday. ...read more read less