https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=842547338371920<\/a><\/p>\nMoments later, two gunmen opened fire outside the mosque and attached school, where young children were inside attending classes. Police say Abdullah, a father of eight and the mosque\u2019s security guard, helped stop the attackers from reaching the children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that he knew he was sacrificing his life for the kids,\u201d Hamideh said. \u201cBecause if he didn’t take that bullet, they would easily walk up the stairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
When officers arrived, Abdullah was among three victims killed outside the mosque. Teachers and children were safely evacuated soon after.<\/p>\n
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl called Abdullah\u2019s actions heroic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis actions were heroic, he saved lives today,\u201d Wahl said.<\/p>\n
Friends described Abdullah as warm, energetic, and deeply kind \u2014 the type of man who greeted every visitor with a smile and treated everyone like family.<\/p>\n
Authorities identified the suspects as 17-year-old Cain Clark and 18-year-old Caleb Vazquez. Police said both died from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds after the attack. Investigators are treating the shooting as a possible hate crime after discovering hateful writings connected to the suspects.<\/p>\n
Police also revealed Clark\u2019s mother had contacted authorities hours earlier, reporting her son missing along with several firearms and warning that he might be suicidal.<\/p>\n
Abdullah\u2019s death left behind his wife, eight children, and a grieving community. A fundraiser organized by local Muslim organizations quickly raised more than $1.7 million to support his family, funeral costs, counseling, and his children\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
The campaign described him simply as a man who stood between gunmen and children.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do not have to share Amin\u2019s faith to stand with his family,\u201d the fundraiser said. \u201cYou only have to believe that a man who died shielding children would be proud to know that his own children will be cared for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amin Abdullah came to work at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18, 2026, like he always did \u2014 greeting families, helping children, and smiling at everyone who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions\/31"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlybirdstories.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}