Politics

Mosque Shooter Identified As Apparent Neo-Nazi With Hispanic Name

Jobs For Felons Hub via Flickr

Eighteen-year-old Caleb Velasquez was reportedly identified as one of two suspects in Monday’s deadly shooting at a California mosque that authorities have linked to Nazi-inspired “hate.”

Velasquez and 17-year-old Cain Clark were found dead from self-inflicted gunshots after allegedly killing three people at the Islamic Center of San Diego, according to multiple news outlets citing law enforcement sources. Velasquez and Clark’s bodies were found near a shotgun and gas can with the Nazi “SS” symbol, according to the New York Post.

The San Diego Police Department declined to comment to the Daily Caller News Foundation on specific reports.

Officials are investigating anti-Islamic writings found in the suspects’ vehicle and considering the attack a possible hate crime, according to multiple reports. At least one suspect left a suicide note to his family about ethnic pride, the New York Post reported. Additionally, the words “hate speech” were left on one gun the suspects allegedly used, anonymous officials told The New York Times.

The mother of one suspect reported her son missing and suicidal on Monday around the time of the shooting, police said. Authorities credited a security guard at the mosque who died confronting the gunmen with stopping further bloodshed.

However, the mother’s report that one of the two gunmen wore a camoflauge outfit seemed “not consistent with what we would typically see from somebody that is suicidal,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said Monday. That information “began to trigger a larger threat assessment picture,” he said.

“Some of that is going to have to take more time to develop further to see where that information is coming from,” Wahl said about the shooters’ motives. “But yes, it’s being investigated as a hate crime at this point. There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved … I’ll leave it at that for now.”