SAN DIEGO — The Islamic Center of San Diego is mourning three people killed in Monday’s attack, including a security guard praised by police for his actions.

San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said the security guard who was inside the mosque was “able to minimize the situation to the front area of the mosque” and saved lives.

“His actions were heroic,” he said.

His name has not been released, but the mosque honored him in a Facebook post, calling him a “a courageous man who put himself on the line of the safety of others, who even in his last moments did not stop protecting our community”

The security guard had worked there for several years.

“He wanted to defend the innocent so he decided to become a security guard,” a family friend, Shaykh Uthman Ibn Farooq, told the Associated Press.

The Islamic Center of San Diego is one of the largest mosques in San Diego and attracts worshippers from across the region. Inside are classrooms, an office, praying halls, a multipurpose room, a library, a kitchen, and a grocery store where kids frequently buy snacks after school.

The man who ran the grocery store and the husband of one of the school’s teachers were also killed, according to mosque members. Authorities have not yet identified them by name.

Suzan Hamideh was trying to come to terms with what unfolded at the mosque she’d been visiting for decades. Right now, she said, she’s angry — at the loss of life, by the fact that the children will live with this trauma for the rest of their lives, and by what she called the rampant misunderstanding of the Muslim religion that she suspects led to the violence.

“Why should this be happening to begin with? And then in schools and places of worship. There is so much hatred,” she said. “It needs to change, and it starts with educating people about Islam. It’s a religion of love and peace.”

Hamideh said she’d heard from those inside that, as soon as the shooters entered the house of worship, the security guard radioed to the rest of the staff that there was an active shooter.

This gave teachers a chance to lock their classrooms, which house students in kindergarten through third grade, she said.

Odai Shanah, 9, was sitting inside his third-grade class at the Islamic Center of San Diego when the shooting started.

He wasn’t sure what the sound was at first. He assumed it was a tree branch snapping in the wind and hitting the ground.

He hid in the classroom closet with the rest of his class until the SWAT team arrived, kicking down the door and instructing the students to file out with their hands up.

The students walked out past the bodies of those killed, his family said.

“We saw a bunch of bad stuff,” Odai said. “I felt scared. My legs were shaking.”

Two teenage gunmen are believed to have killed three people at a San Diego mosque Monday before they took their own lives, authorities said.

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Investigators are working to determine a motive, but the San Diego police chief said the violence was being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Chief Scott Wahl said the event was “every community’s worst nightmare.”

Follow live coverage here.

Here’s what we know about the shootings.

The victims

Authorities responded to a report of an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego, described on the center’s website as the largest mosque in San Diego County, at 11:43 a.m., Wahl said.

The mosque is in San Diego’s Clairemont neighborhood, roughly 8 miles north of downtown.

Officers arrived four minutes later and found three men dead in front of the mosque, Wahl said.

One of the men was a security guard who Wahl said was “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.”

The victims were not identified Monday.

An imam from the Islamic Center said all teachers, students and other school staff members who were at the mosque were safe.

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As the officers deployed what Wahl described as an active shooter response at the mosque and at an adjacent school, more gunfire was reported blocks away, he said.

A landscaper who was working in the area was shot at but not struck, Wahl said.

Where were the suspects found?

Less than a quarter-mile from the landscaper, police found a vehicle in the middle of the street with the two teenagers believed to be the shooters inside, Wahl said.

Both are believed to have died by self-inflicted gunshot wounds, he said.

Two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation and a federal law enforcement official identified the suspects as Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18.

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Clark attended high school virtually, but was set to graduate later this month, according to a school district official.

The mother of one of the suspects called police Monday morning and said her son, her firearms and her car were missing, Wahl said.

She described the teen as suicidal and said he was most likely with a friend, Wahl said. Both were wearing fatigues, he recalled her saying.

Officers were talking with the woman and trying to piece together where her son might be when they learned what was happening at the Islamic center, Wahl said.

They “immediately dispatched themselves to the mosque,” he said.

What we know about a possible motive

The mother told police that her son left a note, Wahl said. He declined to provide additional details about it.

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Wahl said “hate rhetoric” was involved in the shooting, which he said is being investigated as a hate crime. Investigators are examining possible anti-Islamic writings found in the teens’ car, two senior law enforcement officials said.

An imam with the mosque, Taha Hassane, said the center had never before experienced a tragedy like Monday’s shooting, and he said it is “outrageous” that someone would target a place of worship.

“People come to the Islamic center to pray, to celebrate, to learn,” he told reporters.

Monday was the first day of Dhul Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar and one of its most sacred periods.

In a news release, the mosque said it will remain closed until further notice.

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Join UC San Diego Library for a lively evening of art, conversation and discovery featuring artist DeLoss McGraw in dialogue with San Diego art critic, historian and educator Bob Pincus. The program will begin with opening remarks by Lynda Claassen, Director of UC San Diego Library’s Special Collections & Archives.

Drawing on his 25-year tenure as art critic for The San Diego Union-Tribune (1985–2010) and his work for the Los Angeles Times, Pincus and McGraw will offer an insider’s perspective on the exhibition “DeLoss McGraw: Painter-Poet” — on view for a limited time at Geisel Library.

The program concludes with a reception and exclusive access to additional treasures from the DeLoss McGraw Papers not seen in the exhibition.

5:30 p.m. Pre-Reception

6 p.m. Discussion

7 p.m. Post-Reception