Two teenagers who killed three men at a mosque in San Diego on Monday had planned attacks on three separate targets, according to a 75-page manifesto they wrote before the shooting. The document, obtained by researchers, details their hatred for Muslim and Jewish people, Black people, the LGBTQ+ community, women, and both US political parties.
The shooters, aged 17 and 18, killed 51-year-old security guard Amin Abdullah, 78-year-old mosque elder Mansour Kaziha, and 57-year-old Nadir Awad, who lived across the street and whose wife worked at the mosque’s school. The pair livestreamed the attack and wrote on their firearms in white marker, tactics common among online-radicalised shooters.
Matthew Kriner, executive director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism, said the shooters were “jointly radicalised into this digital space” and then into violence. Their manifesto frequently referenced the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter, indicating they adopted ideologies from previous attackers.
The attack is the latest example of hate-motivated shooters copying each other, experts say. The FBI has warned of a rise in nihilistic violent extremism (NVE), which seeks to cause societal collapse through chaos. The bureau is investigating at least 350 people connected to NVE networks that coerce young people into terrorism.
Vice-President JD Vance called the shooting “reprehensible” and “anti-Christian and anti-American”. The White House’s counter-terrorism strategy, released earlier this month, listed narcoterrorists, Islamist terrorists, and violent left-wing extremists as top threats, but did not mention white supremacist violence or online radicalisation of youth.
