Community members take part in a vigil on Tuesday for victims and families of a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego. Three people were killed in a shooting on Monday, and two teenage suspects were found dead in a car from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, according to police.

My colleague from the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ San Diego office sent me a text message Monday morning asking if I could help with something urgent.

When she called a minute later, her voice was shaking. She could barely get the words out: There was an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

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Her executive director, Tazheen Nizam, was already at the scene of the shooting, supporting the mosque and community on the ground. CAIR National already had a statement in the works. Our job in those early hours was to be careful: Say only what had been confirmed, two shooters had killed three at the mosque, and not yet write what many of us were thinking — that this looked like a hate-motivated attack on a Muslim house of worship.

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Police patrol the scene of a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday. Authorities are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime.

Later, as more information came out, San Diego authorities........

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