Read the Manifesto: What Every Law Enforcement Leader Needs to Know About San Diego
The attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego was not random violence. It was a blueprint, and we have seen it before.
On Monday, May 18, 2026, at approximately 11:43 a.m., the San Diego Police Department received reports of an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego, located in the 7000 block of Eckstrom Avenue in the Clairemont neighborhood. Officers arrived on scene by 11:47 a.m. and encountered three deceased adult victims outside the Center.
The shooters were found nearby in a vehicle. Caleb Vazquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, were both found deceased and while the investigation is ongoing, they both appear to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Detectives and crime scene investigators located a manifesto while white supremacist symbols and writing were present on weapons and a gas canister.
Not just another case
It is a busy news cycle and nationally this story will not remain a headline for long. It is an uncomfortable reality that if there had been greater violence and loss, this case would receive the attention that it deserves. Unfortunately, with so many competing media interests today, it is in danger of being treated as a case of nihilistic violent extremism. That is dead wrong.
I had the opportunity to read the entire manifesto, and I believe that every law enforcement leader, school resource officer and school guardian should read it too. A link to it is below.
Keith Graves of Christian Warrior Training has the right take on this. Graves is a retired police sergeant and a highly respected authoritative voice on protecting houses of worship. Vazquez and Clark were not the model of nihilism, instead, like Dylann Roof, they were accelerationists committed to igniting a race war in our country. The difference between nihilism and accelerationism is the difference between nothing matters and everything matters.
Unlike Roof, who they mention with admiration, they were both very intelligent. Reports regarding the 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church attack, never portrayed Roof as anything other than a man of less than average intelligence, and that also bolstered the narrative that feeble-minded persons are more susceptible believing news, and taking violent action from less credible sources. Instead, everything in the manifesto appears well researched and their thoughts are organized. They express understanding, even hope, that this effort will result in their demise.
Again, listening to mainstream media, you would believe that their presence on Discord servers and calling anything we don’t understand the ‘dark web’ or corners of ‘hate’ online was their isolated and impenetrable subculture. The real problem isn’t the obscure parts of the Internet, but the growing community of platformed characters like Nick Fuentes and similar influencers who provide strings of half-truths and outright lies. They blame their problems on broad groups like women, religious groups, cultures and ethnicities. They praise genocidal maniacs and justify atrocities.
The other trap we can easily avoid is that this was simply an act of Islamophobia. If you had read the manifesto prior to attack, you would be easily convinced that their target would be a Jewish or Christian house of worship. The fact that they attacked a mosque with armed security, killed security guard Amin Abdullah and two others before fleeing and ending their own lives, merits more attention than a two-minute network news story. The mosque was also a school in session with 140 elementary students present during the attack.
One of their inspirations was John Earnest who attempted to burn down the Escondido Mosque prior to his attack on the Poway Synagogue. Below is an excerpt from the manifesto:
“Maybe there is a chance that we can take control and prevent our genocide.
Maybe we can combat the hedonistic, nihilistic, and individualist insanity that has
taken control western thought. I then found other fighters, like Patrick Crucius [sic],
Anders Breivek [sic], Dylann Roof, and John Earnest. These men fought for me and
had the same goals I did. It was there I asked myself: Why don’t I do something?
Finally I felt awakened.”
Can we agree that during a different news cycle and with a greater death toll, this would be a hotter topic? There is no question that the shooters had an appetite for more carnage. As they left the mosque, they fired shots at landscapers.
In most cases there are warning signs and we must respond
Vazquez was identified more than a year ago for his troubling beliefs. The concerns were so apparent that despite a risk protection order failing to be authorized by the court, parents voluntarily removed firearms and edged weapons from the home.
When Eric Harris, age 18, and Dylan Klebold, age 17, carried out the attack on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999, it fundamentally reshaped how law enforcement, schools, and policymakers approached not just campus security but all active shooter events.
Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz had at least 18 documented opportunities for intervention at the local level. According to Fox News, it was revealed in a closed session of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees that the FBI received two specific tips, in September 2017 and January 2018, that were mishandled. The 2017 tip alerted the FBI to a YouTube comment by user Nikolas Cruz stating “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” The tips were closed out without any action, including sharing this information with local law enforcement.
The attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resulted in lightning quick Florida legislation that changed school security standards, introduced risk-protection orders, and even changed the purchasing age for long guns.
Those events from the past drove change. That is why we need law enforcement leaders and SROs to read this manifesto to comprehend how fully persuaded these young men have become. The fact that this attack took place, despite indicators, should count as a loss. Even when you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
How else can we engage students who are being actively radicalized by deceptive ideological content, the very dynamic that appears to have shaped the worldview of the two gunmen who, while livestreaming, murdered three men? Taking the time to gather an understanding will give us all the indicators necessary to justify a conversation with other violence prone accelerationists. The only solution is for them to receive truth from authoritative sources to combat the counterfeit narratives both in the mainstream and in the subculture. The principle is simple: Bank tellers are trained to detect counterfeit currency by handling real money.
We must take this seriously today as we can be assured that Vazquez and Clark are being venerated in hundreds of new manifestos, just as they praised Harris and Klebold in theirs.
Please keep all peace officers and first responders in your prayers.
Roland Clee served a major Florida police department as a Community Service Officer for more than 26 years. His career included uniformed patrol, training, media relations, intelligence, criminal investigations, and chief’s staff. He writes the American Peace Officer newsletter, speaks at public safety, recruiting and leadership conferences and helps local governments and public safety agencies through his business, CommandStaffConsulting.com.
His work is frequently featured on LawOfficer.com, the only law enforcement owned major media presence in the public safety realm.
For media interviews and podcast appearances, click here: http://bit.ly/40pT3NS
References
https://www.sandiego.gov/activeshooter
https://time.com/article/2026/05/18/islamic-center-san-diego-shooting/
Well done Roland. Lessons to be learned if we ask the right questions.