'Heroic' security guard killed in US mosque shooting 'undoubtedly saved lives'

A "heroic" security guard killed during an attack on a mosque "saved lives" and prevented the incident from being "much worse," police in the US have said.

Three adult males died after gunmen opened fire at the Islamic Centre of San Diego shortly before noon on Monday.

Two teenagers, aged 17 and 18, who police suspect of carrying out the attack, were found dead in a vehicle after taking their own lives near the site of the shooting, police said.

There was no specific threat against the centre, the city's largest mosque, but authorities found that the suspects engaged in "generalised hate rhetoric", and detectives are treating the attack as a hate crime.

San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said of the guard: "It's fair to say his actions were heroic. Undoubtedly, he saved lives."

He "played a pivotal role" in keeping the attack from being "much worse", Mr Wahl said.

The guard has been named by a family friend as Amin Abdullah, who had worked at the mosque for more than a decade.

Shaykh Uthman Ibn Farooq, who spoke with the victim's son, said: "He wanted to defend the innocent so he decided to become a security guard."

Mr Abdullah's family has not commented.

In a Facebook post, the mosque, which also houses a school, called him "a courageous man who put himself on the line for the safety of others, who even in his last moments did not stop protecting our community".

Those who died "were men who put themselves on the line for our masjid [mosque] and our community", the post said, adding they were "men of courage, sacrifice, and faith" whose absence "leaves a void that can never truly be filled".

It described one of the other victims as a "foundation of the centre" who was dedicated to building the community from the beginning, and the third man as someone whose "kindness, sincerity and wavering spirit touched everyone around him".

Chief Wahl said police were already looking for the suspects at the time of the shooting after the mother of one of the teenagers reported that her son was suicidal and had run away, and that weapons and her vehicle were missing from the family's home.

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Two hours later, the shooting started.

An appeal set up by the centre to support those affected by the tragedy had raised more than $456,000 (£340,000) of its $1m target by Tuesday afternoon, UK time.

Imam Taha Hassane, the mosque's director, called it "extremely outrageous to target a place of worship", while US President Donald Trump called the shooting a "terrible situation".

(c) Sky News 2026: 'Heroic' security guard killed in US mosque shooting 'undoubtedly saved lives'