San Diego Islamic Center School Shooting
After months (or years) of missed red flags, two high school students attacked the largest mosque and Islamic school in San Diego.
This looks like the iconic image from Sandy Hook, but this time it was an Islamic school in Southern California. I feel like I’m writing the same story on repeat because I am.
On Monday, police responded to an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego shortly after 11:40 a.m. Officers found three dead men in front of the center, one was a security guard. The center is the largest mosque in San Diego County and includes the Al Rashid School that offers courses in Arabic language, Islamic studies, and Quran reading for students ages 5 and up.
The attack was committed by two teens (17 and 18) who took guns, ammo, body armor, and a parent’s car to get to the mosque. This highlights all the modern trends in mass shootings and school shootings:
Easy access to 30 firearms and body armor in their homes
Radicalized online to develop a hate-based, nihilistic world view including nazi symbols and white nationalist content
Suicidal and in a noticeable crisis prior to the shooting
Planned to die during the attack
Picked a target with armed security/police onsite
Livestreamed the attack to make it a public spectacle for their online extremist community to watch and share
Attack was over very quickly (between 1-3 minutes) despite having functional guns, more ammo, and victims in the area
Attack ended on their terms before police arrived
Left behind a long, rambling manifesto (75-page document expressing hatred for Muslim and Jewish people, for Black people, the LGBTQ+ community, women, and for both political parties in the US)
What’s so disturbing about many of these school shooters is they appear to lack a clear ideology that motivates or explains their violence beyond hating everyone and wanted to hurt the world.
Read more: Rise of purposeless, non-ideological gun violence by young American men
What’s extremely rare about the San Diego attack is two assailants. When teens are plotting together, the chances of getting caught are significantly higher because there are twice as many people associated with them who can spot the warning signs.
Federal government violence prevention is MIA
Why wasn’t their online activity identified before the attack?
This Administration’s counterterrorism strategy does not identify neo nazi or white nationalist violence as a threat. Per the new White House document, the only threats to the nation are from drug gangs, old Islamic terrorist groups (not newly radicalized terrorists from the attack on Iran or Gaza), and left-wing groups.
The blocked quote from the President uses “invasion” to describe migration into the United States. That is the same language used by the online neo-nazi and violent extremist communities that radicalized these teens in San Diego.
Just like these neo-nazi teens in San Diego, what was the ideology of the attackers who committed bombings and shootings at Oklahoma City, Centennial Olympic Park, LA Jewish Community Center, US Holocaust Museum, Wisconsin Sikh temple, Charleston church, Charlottesville, Pittsburgh synagogue, El Paso Walmart, Poway synagogue, Buffalo supermarket, and Jacksonville Dollar General?
88% of mass shooters who attack public places have far-right, white nationalist, and anti-government ideologies. Almost every school shooter over the last 20 years shares, writes about, and engages with this same far-right, white nationalist, and neo-nazi content.
Community Missed Opportunity to Prevent Violence
One of the San Diego mosque shooters was a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu student and high school wrestler. Every martial arts coach has a responsibility for monitoring the well-being of students, especially the kids. Adult students at his gym said that he was bullied by the other kids in the youth jiu jitsu program, so he practiced with the adult female students instead of the other kids.
There are usually multiple coaches for every kids class with a 10:1 or 5:1 ratio. If even under the supervision of adults, he was getting bullied so badly that he needed to train with the women instead of his peers, I would predict he was also getting extensively bullied at school.
It’s important to note that this gym and his coach have been involved in serious claims of abuse including the recent arrest of this coach’s brother in Brazil.
While this gym in San Diego was having some major issues, there are other people doing amazing work in the sport. Last year, I interviewed the owner of Guardian Jiu Jitsu, a non-profit focused on youth empowerment and violence prevention across the world.
Ep 33. Let kids fight (safely) with ‘Guardian’ founder Ben Kovacs
For the information that is available about the San Diego attack, we know the shooter was in severe crisis and wanted to end his life. It’s our responsibility (including me as a jiu jitsu coach) to notice and help these kids, teens, and even adults before the worst case scenario happens. I talked about how the jiu jitsu community can identify people who are being radicalized to violence and create stronger supportive communities 3 months ago on the Fighting Matters Podcast.
David Riedman, PhD is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, Chief Data Officer at a global risk management firm, and a tenure-track professor. Listen to my podcast—Riedman Report: Risk, AI, Education & Security—or my interviews on Freakonomics Radio and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Once again, David, you nailed a severe problem. Our current administration seems to be avoiding including White nationalists and pro-nazi perpetrators as significant terrorist danger. Might not be inadvertent. Anyway, I wish I was able to share your posts on Facebook. I guess you opted-out. Dave Pavlick, Litchfield, CT