Speaker 1 (00:11):
Good afternoon. Cesar Jimenez with San Diego Police Department, public information officer. Still very early in our investigation. Chief Scott Wall is going to let you know what occurred. We are going to have time for questions afterwards and so please, Chief Scott Wahl.
Chief Scott Wahl (00:37):
This is every community's worst nightmare. I want to give you some preliminary information to put a lot of minds at ease. There is no further threat. Both suspects in this case are deceased. All of the kids are safe.
(01:01)
Our hearts go out to the families that are in this moment being notified of what has happened to their loved ones. We have three confirmed adults that are deceased at the Islamic Center. There is a lot of preliminary information that we're going to try to highlight and cover, but understand it's going to take us some time to get accurate information out to everyone.
(01:32)
Here's what we know so far: at about 11:43, we received a call of an active shooter at the Islamic Center. Within four minutes, officers arrived on scene and observed immediately three deceased, what appeared to be deceased victims out in front. They immediately began to deploy with an active shooter response into the mosque and adjacent school.
(02:17)
At about the same time, we began to receive calls from just a couple blocks away that we had more active gunfire. Officers were also responding to that call for service at the same time. There was a landscaper that was doing his work that was shot at and fortunately was not hit. That was at about the 7100 block of Salerno, which is just a couple blocks from here.
(02:59)
Moments later at the 3,800 block of Hatton, officers were called to that location where they found a vehicle in the middle of the street with who we believed to be the shooters in this incident, both deceased.
(03:19)
The circumstances that led up to this and the details of what happened and exactly which time it happened will come out in the days ahead. I can tell you this is... in 28 years, this is the most dynamic and impressive response that I have ever seen in policing. We have every single police officer available throughout our county that dropped what they're doing and did exactly what they're trained to do, run towards gunfire.
(04:00)
I could not be more proud and I cannot express the gratitude, the willingness to step into harm's way in a moment like this. And I tell you what got me--watching the kids come running out just thankful to be alive.
(04:33)
I want to bring up Mark Remily from the FBI. Because of the Islamic Center location, we are considering this a hate crime until it's not. And at this point we're going to work closely with the FBI to make sure that we are matching all the resources that we need for this investigation. So Mark.
Mark Remily (04:56):
Thank you, Chief.
(05:01)
Good afternoon. My name is Mark Remily. I'm the special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego field office. Today, the FBI responded to assist our local law enforcement partners at the Islamic Center of San Diego. This was based on reports of an active shooter.
(05:18)
As the chief said, what we know at this time is that there are three deceased adult males and those are the presumed victims at this time. On behalf of the FBI, we extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the victims of this tragic incident. There were two subjects, both teenagers and both are confirmed deceased. I want to thank our local law enforcement partners for their quick response that undoubtedly saved the additional loss of life.
(05:51)
The FBI is meticulously assessing the situation and is prepared to employ every resource we have to uncover the facts of this incident. No community should have to grow through such a tragic incident, but we will work tirelessly until we learn the truth.
(06:07)
We have on scene a number of special agents, task force officers, our evidence response personnel, victim specialists, and many more. As we work through this investigation, we ask for your patience to determine any motive and facts associated with the shooting.
(06:23)
The FBI continues to ask for the public's help in providing any information that could help us resolve this investigation and we remind the public that any detail, no matter how small, could be useful.
(06:36)
The FBI has set up a digital media tip line for information regarding this shooting. We ask that the public submit their tips to fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI with any information you may have.
(06:49)
Thank you.
Chief Scott Wahl (06:54):
One more piece of information that I failed to put out. There is a reunification center set up at 4125 Hathaway where parents could be reunified with their kids and any other loved ones that might be related to the Islamic Center. That is the location where you can be reunified. Next, I want to bring up the mayor of San Diego, Mayor Todd Gloria.
Mayor Todd Gloria (07:24):
Thank you, Chief. I want to be here to reemphasize what our police chief said. The threat currently has been addressed. Children are safe and that is a good thing. Obviously, we've had the loss of life here at the Islamic Center of San Diego and to our local Muslim community, my prayers are with you.
(07:47)
I want to assure our Muslim community that we will do everything it takes to make sure that you can feel safe in this city and no resource will be spared in making sure that our religious institutions and locations are protected in this sensitive time.
(08:03)
I want to express my appreciation to the San Diegans who respond to our calls, to clear the area, to allow law enforcement to do their jobs. I ask you to continue to do that until you hear otherwise. As Chief said, students can be picked up at the church just down the street here. We have that information already sent out.
(08:22)
And lastly, I would just say at this time... Obviously, we'll have more comments later today, but at this moment, I want to simply express my immense gratitude in that of all 1.4 million San Diegans for the incredible law enforcement response that we saw here today. As Chief mentioned, a response within four minutes. This is what we train for. This is what we budget for. This is what we ask of our public safety professionals and they absolutely deliver in the way that we ask them to do.
(08:48)
So I appreciate our San Diego Police Department, our San Diego Fire Rescue Department, our chief of the fire department is here as well, as well as our local, state and federal partners, many of whom have been in touch with me directly, recognizing the gravity of this situation and why it is such a tragic situation for which there'll be a lot more work to be done in the days and weeks and months ahead.
(09:13)
Again, my condolences to the victims and their families, to our Muslim community. One of our great leaders is here, Imam Taha, who is directly impacted. This is a time for making sure that we do everything that's necessary to investigate and fully address the incident that was here today, but to reassert, as I always will, that hate has no place in the city of San Diego. And when it happens and crime of any nature occurs, we will hold you accountable. Again, appreciation to our public safety professionals. I'll turn it back to our chief.
Chief Scott Wahl (09:53):
I'll open it up to questions here in just a second. I want you to keep in mind we're giving you what we have and what we know at this point, and there's a limitation of what we can go into at this point until we can confirm information. So with that, we'll open up to a couple questions.
Audience (10:09):
[inaudible 00:10:11]
Chief Scott Wahl (10:13):
Yeah. So thank you for asking. How many total deceased? So we have our two suspects that are deceased. We have three victims at the Islamic Center. All three are our adults, for a total of five people that are deceased related to this incident.
Audience (10:30):
I want to get [inaudible 00:10:34] together [inaudible 00:10:38].
Chief Scott Wahl (10:41):
Yeah, we-
Audience (10:42):
[inaudible 00:10:43]
Chief Scott Wahl (10:44):
Yeah. So we are actively investigating that right now to figure out and piece together exactly what led to this moment. And as we get that information confirmed and verified, we'll be back out here providing more details moving forward.
Audience (10:58):
[inaudible 00:11:01]
Chief Scott Wahl (11:00):
So the suspects at this point appear to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. There were no officers involved in firing their weapons, but that is still very preliminary at this point, but that's what we believe right now.
Audience (11:30):
[inaudible 00:11:28] two males?
Chief Scott Wahl (11:30):
Two males.
Audience (11:30):
Do you have ages?
Chief Scott Wahl (11:35):
At this point, we believe them to be 17 and 19.
Audience (11:47):
The suspect's identity put out in the airport quickly. Was the suspect already known that they planned this and people were aware of this before it happened?
Chief Scott Wahl (11:50):
So again, we are actively investigating the things that led up to this. Obviously, these things don't typically just happen on a whim and the information that we knew preceding it is what we're actively looking into. And once we get that information verified and assembled, we will provide it. Yes, ma'am.
Audience (12:11):
[inaudible 00:12:14]
Chief Scott Wahl (12:23):
Yeah. So the Islamic Center does have security. One of the deceased is a security guard that works there and I think played a pivotal role in assisting from this being much worse.
Audience (12:48):
[inaudible 00:12:52]
Chief Scott Wahl (12:55):
Yes. Yeah. The Islamic Center does have cameras and there is footage. There's going to be a tremendous amount of information and details that we're going to try to sort and put this puzzle back together again.
Audience (13:08):
[inaudible 00:13:10]
Chief Scott Wahl (13:13):
Not confirmed.
Audience (13:13):
[inaudible 00:13:15]
Chief Scott Wahl (13:16):
No, we don't.
Shannon (13:17):
[inaudible 00:13:19]
Chief Scott Wahl (13:19):
Shannon, I don't necessarily know which locations were put on a lockdown. There's other neighboring schools in the area. It's standard protocol. When information like this comes out with an active shooter, we try our best to get that information out and either shelter in place or evacuate from the area if it's ideally safe to do so. So that would not be outside of protocol for that to happen.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Just one more question. Yes.
Audience (13:54):
[inaudible 00:13:56]
Chief Scott Wahl (14:01):
So our initial officers that got on scene did not engage with the suspects in the parking lot. They began to make entry into the Islamic Center. They observed three deceased bodies outside of the center, which obviously forced them to engage in an active shooter response, immediately deploy inside of the Islamic Center and start working from room to room. They did have to breach doors to get into all of the different rooms. Extremely chaotic.
(14:36)
There was somewhere between 50 to 100 police officers inside of that facility. All of you that responded here could see how many officers and deputies from around the county that were surrounding the outside of the facility. We also have the scene a couple blocks away where we had active gunfire coming in on a landscaper that was just out there doing his job. Thankfully, he's okay, was not hit. He was not injured.
(15:07)
But we got a lot of work to do to try to figure out what led up to this and exactly what actions took place, but I can tell you with 100% certainty, the heroic actions of the responding officers and deputies is beyond words. To know that this many of our public servants are willing to leave their loved ones behind, drop what they're doing and run towards gunfire without asking any questions is remarkable.
Audience (15:38):
[inaudible 00:15:41]
Chief Scott Wahl (15:45):
Not yet. We're obviously making notifications as we speak to family and loved ones, and so I want to respect that. So we will be back. We will be back with more information a little bit later today. Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Taha, like to say anything?
Taha Hassane (15:59):
Chief.
(16:05)
Good afternoon. My name is Taha Hassane. I'm the Imam and Director of the Islamic Center of San Diego. I know it's time of sorrow, time of sadness. We have never experienced a tragedy like this before. And at this moment, all what I can say is: sending our prayers and standing in solidarity with all the families in our community here and also the other mosques and all the places of worship in our beautiful city should always be protected.
(16:47)
It is extremely outrageous to target a place of worship. Our Islamic center is a place of worship. People come to the Islamic Center to pray, to celebrate, to learn not only Muslims, but we have people from all walks of life. Just this morning, earlier, a group of people, non-Muslims coming just to learn about our faith and our cultures. So this is something that we have never expected.
(17:25)
And I would like also to thank all the people who contacted us from all over the country and even from overseas to give condolences and to ask about, is there anything they can do to help?
(17:39)
And I would like also to thank our local authorities, our San Diego Police Department, the FBI, the San Diego Police Department, FBI, and all the sheriff department, our mayor for showing up and standing in solidarity with us. So this is what I have to say. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Thank you very much. That's all the time we have right now. We will come back in two hours and we will also set up for Spanish interviews. Yes.