San Diego police launched a hate crime investigation into Monday’s deadly shooting attack at a mosque in the southern California city, with the city’s police chief saying there was “definitely hate rhetoric that was involved.”

Two teenage gunmen opened fire Monday morning at the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing three men outside the mosque, one of them a security guard. Police said emergency response teams found the victims, all men, outside the sprawling complex, before later finding the shooters, aged 17 and 18, dead in a car from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

“We are actively investigating this as a hate crime,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl told reporters. “There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved.”

Wahl said that given the location of the attack, investigators were “considering this a hate crime until it’s not.”

A photograph taken by The Associated Press at the scene of the apparent suicides showed police going through the shooters’ car, as a gas can branded with the Nazi “SS” symbol sits on the ground nearby, apparently taken from the vehicle.

Police did not specifically mention the gas can in any statement or give details on any other evidence found in the vehicle.

“We received a call of an active shooter at the Islamic center. Within four minutes, officers arrived on scene and observed immediately three deceased victims out in front,” Wahl said.

“We immediately began to deploy with an active shooter response into the........

© The Times of Israel