More Than 2,000 Gather in San Diego to Mourn Three Men Killed at Mosque

More than 2,000 people gathered in a park in San Diego, California, on Thursday to mourn three men killed during a shooting at the city's largest mosque earlier this week. The bodies of 51-year-old Amin Abdullah, 78-year-old Mansour Kaziha and 57-year-old Nadir Awad lay beneath cloth under a white canopy.

Attendees stood in rows for the Islamic funeral prayer, or Janazah, and chanted "God is the greatest" in Arabic.

Many attendees remembered the three men as heroes for delaying the two teenage suspects who opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday during school hours. Police said the victims' actions likely prevented further bloodshed. m. Pacific Time when Abdullah, the center's security guard, engaged the assailants.

He used his radio to order a lockdown at the mosque, which houses a primary school with 140 students. Awad, whose wife is a teacher at the center, lived across the street. He and Kaziha, the center's handyman and cook, heard the gunfire and ran toward the building to help.

All three men died from their injuries. The assailants fled in their vehicle and were later found dead from self-inflicted gunshots, police said.

"Today is a message to everyone:

Our community got hurt, but our community is standing strong and firm," the center's imam said. People had flown in from across the United States, some from as far as the East Coast, to attend the ceremony. " The attack is under investigation as a targeted attack.

Police have indicated they are considering it a hate crime until evidence shows otherwise. Khaled Abdullah, 24, the security guard's son, said his family has drawn strength from the way his father died. "The fact that he was on the front line, trying to defend kids and innocent people, that makes me feel good," he told Reuters on Wednesday.