San Diego mosque attackers targeted synagogue, school, North Carolina prosecutors say

Prosecutors in North Carolina on Monday revealed two teenage gunmen, who in May attacked members of a mosque in San Diego, had planned to also attack a San Diego synagogue and Black students at a local high school.

Instead, Amin Abdullah, a security guard fired a shot that struck one of the gunman and likely prevented the pair from further wreaking havoc on the San Diego County community, according to Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill said. Instead of advancing on the mosque and the Islamic Center’s student-filled school, the shooters drove away, stopping to shoot a landscaper, who survived, before turning the guns on themselves.

The shooters had planned to attack the Kehilat Ariel Messianic Synagogue, which is about 1.5 miles from the Islamic Center of San Diego where Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad were killed on May 18.

The revelation came to light Monday during a news conference announcing the grand jury indictment of a 17-year-old girl who is accused of helping disseminate a livestream of the shooting and the hate-filled manifesto of the gunmen, O’Neill said. Sarah Lindsay Santiago, 17, is being tried as an adult due to North Carolina law on three counts of murder by aiding and abetting and one count of conspiracy.

San Diego police confirmed the statements made by the Forsyth County district attorney but would not disclose any further information regarding the intended targets “as not to legitimize their alleged plans.”

NBC San Diego spoke to a Rabbi Barney Kasdan of the Kehilat Ariel Messianic Synagogue on Monday evening. He was not surprised the synagogue came up on the shooters’ radar based on its short distance from the Islamic Center.

“Somehow God directed away from Kehilat Ariel if that was their intention,” said Rabbi Barney Kasdan.

O’Neill said the attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego was believed to be the first to be “ideologically-motivated” in a century, and he urged parents to pay attention to what their kids are doing online.

“This underground subculture of hate, they listen to each other, they talk to each other on coded platforms,” O’Neill said. “It radicalizes one another to the point where they carry out these horrific crimes of violence and murder.”

The Islamic Center of San Diego released a statement to its community members reassuring them that Monday’s indictment was not connected to a new threat against their center.

“We want to begin by reassuring everyone: there is no new threat to our community, and nothing about this update changes the safety of our masjid or our programs,” the letter said.

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Rabbi Kasdan is confident in security protocols at his synagogue. He says armed guards are visible at every major event at the temple.

“Even though we are very different communities, sometimes politics get in the way but there is no place for hate,” Kasdan said.

The teenage girl’s indictment is a relief to Rabbi Kasdan.

“It just goes to show what we all are understanding that the dangers of social media spreading hate messages. I’m glad they found, whoever she is and anyone who assisted in this terrible crime,” Kasdan said.

San Diego FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Mark Remily said the message here whether you are physically involved in an act of violence, on the scene, or 2,000 miles away in support of it — you may be held accountable and, in this case, the charges are as serious as they get.