San Diego mosque shooting: Who were the victims?

Daughter honours security guard father killed while protecting mosque

Authorities at the Islamic Center of San Diego confirmed the identities of two men killed in a shooting incident at the mosque on Monday. This came a day after friends and family identified Amin Abdullah as the security guard who was killed while trying to prevent suspected attackers from entering the mosque complex. Mosque authorities told Al Jazeera the other two victims also played a role in responding to the gunmen.

“We call them our brothers in the community. We call them our martyrs and our heroes,” said the mosque’s imam, Taha Hassane.

Two teenage attackers opened fire at the San Diego mosque while police officers were already looking for one of the attackers after his mother alerted the police, concerned that her son was suicidal and had run away, the police chief said. The suspected gunmen were later found dead of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Police have been investigating the attack as a hate crime.

Kaziha, 78, also known as Abu Ezz, was a longtime employee of the mosque who had called the police before he was killed, the chairman of the mosque’s board of directors, Ahmed Shabaik, told Al Jazeera. He added that, originally from Syria, Kaziha was married with five adult children. “He was a cornerstone, a pillar of this masjid.”

Shabaik said Kaziha had been with the mosque since its construction in the 1980s.

“He does everything in the mosque, all the everyday demands. He also ran the gift shop inside the mosque and was behind all the cooking during Ramadan for iftar and made the suhoor meals,” Shabaik said.

Yasser Kaziha, Mansour Kaziha’s son, described his father as not only a pillar of the community, but “a pillar of our household”.

“He taught us to expect hardships and push through them to fill our individual purposes just like he did,” Yasser Kaziha said during a vigil Tuesday evening.

Awad, 57, lived across the street from the Islamic Center and attended prayers “every single day”, Hassane said.

When he heard gunfire, Awad ran towards the building, where his wife is a teacher at the school.

“He left his home, trying to go and do something to help,” Hassane said during the vigil.

“When he heard the shots, he ran into the masjid to help, he also diverted some people who were coming to the masjid at the time,” Shabaik said.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Hassane said Awad’s wife is a teacher at the Islamic school, and he was a devout member of the community.

“He is every single day at the Islamic Center, joining the prayers every single day,” he said.

After Abdullah, 51, was identified by reports as one of the men killed in the attack, tributes poured in online. A Facebook profile associated with him has 1,800 followers and lists Abdullah as married.

Local media reports suggest that Abdullah was a father of eight.

United States officials said the guard “played a pivotal role” in preventing the attack from being “much worse”. “It’s fair to say his actions were heroic,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said at a news conference. “Undoubtedly, he saved lives today.”

His daughter Hawaa Abdullah, surrounded by family members at a Tuesday news conference, said her father was loving and supportive, a “best friend” and a role model. He took his job protecting the community so seriously he sometimes wouldn’t eat during his shifts, she said.

“He wanted to save his food until after he left the job because he was afraid that if he were on his break, something bad will happen,” she said.

Abdullah greeted all visitors to the mosque with a smile and the traditional Muslim greeting in Arabic of “as-salamu alaikum”, or “peace be upon you,” according to Mahmood Ahmadi, a longtime attendee. Another friend, Shaykh Uthman Ibn Farooq, said Abdullah was there nearly every single day and was dedicated to his wife and eight children.

Abdullah was raised as a Christian, and described in a 2019 YouTube video his journey discovering the Islamic faith after graduating high school. Farooq said he met Abdullah shortly after he became a Muslim in the 1990s. Most recently, they had gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca together.

“Amin was born a Muslim to an African American mother. He was as American as one can get. He was also as Muslim as one can be. He was killed by guns fired by two American young men,” Kashif-ul-Huda, a biotech professional and former colleague of Abdullah, wrote for Al Jazeera in an essay published on Tuesday.