A mourner who attended the funeral for the three men shot and killed at the Islamic Center of San Diego earlier this week remembered the men for their bravery in defending the center when the shooting began.
Yasmeen Elmezain was among the thousands of people who gathered at San Diego State University Mission Valley River Park on Thursday for the Salat al-Janazah, the Islamic funeral prayer, CBS8 reported.
Elmezain and other members of the community paid their respects to Amin Abdullah, Nadir Awad and Mansour Kaziha, who were killed earlier this week after two teenagers opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
After the prayer service, the victims were brought to La Vista Memorial Park near National City, according to CBS8.
Local police and leaders at the mosque praised the three men for distracting the gunmen and preventing others from being killed.
Abdullah, who was a security guard at the center, is said to have stopped the gunmen from entering the school that’s attached to the center.
On Monday, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said that Abdullah’s actions were “pivotal” in preventing more bloodshed.
“At this point, I think it’s fair to say his actions were heroic,” Wahl said. “Undoubtedly, he saved lives today.”
Kaziha served as the mosque’s shopkeeper for 40 years.
“He would like bring us into the store and let us take whatever we wanted for free,” one mourner recalled of Kaziha. “The amazing thing is that I found out after he died that I wasn’t the only one he was doing that to. Everybody was saying the same story.”
Awad, who lived across the street from the mosque, ran toward the Islamic Center after he heard the shots. Awad’s wife works as a teacher at the center and he ran there to go help.
Earlier this week, the San Diego Police Department identified the suspects as Caleb Liam Vazquez, 18, and Cain Lee Clark, 17. The two teenagers are believed to have killed three people before ending their own lives.
Mark Remily, the special agent in charge of FBI San Diego, said during a Tuesday news conference that the teenagers appeared to have met online.
A manifesto recovered by law enforcement covered “a wide aspect of races and religions,” according to Remily. Officials also said that they found a suicide note that contained writings about racial pride.
Hours before the attack began, the police received a call related to the 17-year-old shooting suspect. The teenager’s mother reported to the police that her son was missing, in addition to her car and several weapons.
During a Monday news conference about the shooting, Wahl said that the mother told the police that her son had left the house with another individual, and that they were both “dressed in camo.”
According to the San Diego police chief, the behavior the mother described was “not consistent with what [police] would typically see from somebody that is suicidal.”
“One person that’s suicidal is not going to take three weapons from a location,” the police chief stated, adding that the mother’s phone call triggered a “larger threat assessment picture.”
Law enforcement began tracking down the vehicle and the missing teens using license-plate readers. They also deployed officers to a mall and a high school. As the police searched for the teenagers, a call later came through about a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
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