Cain Clark San Diego mosque shooter left suicide note gushing over ‘racial pride’ before killing 3 with teen accomplice, Caleb Vazquez after threatening to kill self and stealing mom’s guns and driving to Islamic Center of San Diego in Clairemont and launching attack. Gun used in attack is found in vehicle with written ‘hate speech’ on it.
One of the two San Diego mosque shooters who launched a deadly attack with a fellow teen assailant is alleged to have left a suicide note ‘about racial pride’ hours before opening fire that left three dead.
Cain Clark, 17, along with fellow teen, Caleb Vazquez, 18, attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego in Clairemont around 11:40am on Monday, after stealing guns and a car from his mother’s home.
A terrorist attack targeted the Islamic Center of San Diego.
The terrorist attack resulted in 3 Muslim worshippers murdered, including the mosque security guard who sacrificed himself to prevent an even larger massacre.
Photo and screenshot of The hero Amin Abdullah, the… pic.twitter.com/eQCNOTZw2z
— Warfare Analysis (@warfareanalysis) May 18, 2026
Cain Clark San Diego mosque shooter suicide note
Hours before the attack, Clark’s mother reported to police that her son was suicidal and potentially armed with her weapons, and officers were already searching for the teen when he opened fire.
After killing three people and fleeing the scene, Clark and Vazquez were found near the mosque with self-inflicted mortal gunshot wounds. Police sources said one of the guns in their vehicle had ‘hate speech’ written on it, according to the LA Times.
Police sources told the outlet that when officers searched Clark’s home around two miles from the mosque, they also discovered a suicide note ‘writing about racial pride.’ A BMW X1 that the two shooters died in was photographed with a gas can emblazoned with a Nazi SS sticker on its side.
Authorities to date had yet to release the content of the suicide note.
Clark was enrolled in a virtual learning academy at the San Diego Unified School District, and was set to graduate from high school this semester, school officials said.
He was previously a star wrestler at Madison High School, but had only been attending classes online for some time, as officials said he had spiraled into ‘hate speech.’
Suicidal teen with warnings of hate speech
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said on Monday that hours before the tragedy, his department got a call from the teenager’s mom who was concerned he was suicidal.
The mom, who has not been named, said she realized several of her guns were missing, and said she saw him and a companion wearing ‘camouflage outfits’, Wahl said.
Wahl said that although Clark’s mother warned cops that her weapons were missing, she did not indicate any kind of planned attack on the mosque.
‘There was no specific threat, especially no specific threat to the Islamic Center,’ the police chief said.
‘It was just general hate kind of speech that I think covered a wide gamut.’
Hero security guard at Islamic center saves lives
Police said they arrived at the Islamic Center within minutes of the shooting, and found three people deceased in front of the building, including security guard Amin Abdullah, who was hailed as a hero as he saved lives during Monday’s shooting.
Several blocks away, a landscaper was also shot at but was not hit, and minutes later police received a call about shots fired down the street.
Clark and Vazquez were found dead inside a vehicle on Salerno Street, several streets away from the Islamic Center.
Images from the scene showed a red gasoline canister with a sticker resembling a Nazi SS logo, as a shotgun lay nearby.
While authorities and police sources have revealed some details of Clark, little is known about Vazquez.
A hate crime rocks California: The perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the Islamic center have been identified as teenage terrorists Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18. pic.twitter.com/rEEq3lxic1
— JUSTICE FOREVER (@JusticeFre82308) May 19, 2026
Why was Islamic school and mosque targeted?
As authorities now probe the shooting as a hate crime, they are looking into reported anti-Islamic writings that were found inside the vehicle where the boys were found dead.
The shooting at the San Diego Islamic Center came at the beginning of Dhu’l-Hijja, one of the holiest months on the Muslim calendar.
It translates to ‘month of the pilgrimage’ and marks a time when millions of Muslims across the world embark on the Hajj, an annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The Islamic Center of San Diego is the largest mosque in San Diego County, with around 5,000 members.
The attack on the religious center has since sparked concerns over Islamophobia as officials continue to probe why and how the Islamic facility came to be targeted.
