The guard was Amin Abdullah, a father of eight, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Diego (Cair-SD), Tazheen Nizam, told the BBC.
Father-of-eight killed in San Diego mosque shooting hailed as a heroJust nowAna FaguyandNardine Saad,Los AngelesIslamic Center of San DiegoAmin Abdullah was a father of eightThe bravery of a security guard who was shot dead along with two other worshippers at a San Diego mosque on Monday prevented the attack from being much worse, say police.The guard was Amin Abdullah, a father of eight, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Diego (Cair-SD), Tazheen Nizam, told the BBC. "It's fair to say his actions were heroic," San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl told a news conference. "Undoubtedly, he saved lives today."Abdullah and two others - whom Cair-SD named as Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad - were killed by two yet-to-be-identified teenage attackers who then took their own lives, say police. Police said on Tuesday that as the suspects ran passed Abdullah at the mosque's entrance he began shooting, and they returned fire. He also enacted lockdown procedures and is credited with saving numerous lives, including those of 140 children at the school that is part of the centre, Wahl said at a briefing on Tuesday.The two other victims then drew the attention of the suspects in a parking lot, where they were fatally shot. Wahl said the response that Abdullah initiated "undoubtedly" pushed the suspects to flee.Wahl praised all three victims for deterring additional fatalities. People who knew Abdullah told US media he looked after the community. Others have taken to social media to describe him as "the nicest man you'll ever meet".The mosque called him "a courageous man who put himself on the line of the safety of others, who even in his last moments did not stop protecting our community".Nizam, the Cair spokeswoman, told the BBC: "Amin was loved by everybody, he stood there day after day, always smiling, welcoming everybody, welcoming the kids who came to the school."He was a shining light. He is a true hero, a martyr."A friend of the family told the Associated Press that Abdullah was well-known at the mosque and had worked there for more than a decade."He wanted to defend the innocent so he decided to become a security guard," Shaykh Uthman Ibn Farooq told the news agency. Sam Hamideh knew Abdullah through the mosque and told the BBC's US news partner CBS that the security guard would be remembered for his kindness."It didn't matter who walked up... any random person could just walk up and, like, [Abdullah] would greet them, make sure they are OK," Hamideh said. "Whether they were homeless off the street looking for something, whether it was a child or elderly."On Tuesday evening, ahead of a community vigil, his daughter Hawa Abdullah, flanked by her siblings, said her father "would want our community to stand together as one"."That's exactly the legacy he left behind. He wants all of us to be better, regardless of who we are, what we identify as," she added.The family was joined by several members of the San Diego Islamic community, many of whom called on elected officials to be careful in how they shape discourse around religious communities. Getty ImagesThe other two victims were worshippers at the mosque, said Cair-SD. Kaziha helped maintain its grounds and convenience store. Awad's wife teaches at the school that is part of the Islamic centre.An online fundraiser for the three victims has raised more than $2.9m (£2.1m) as of Tuesday afternoon local time.The deadly shooting unfolded close to noon on Monday after the mother of one of the two alleged attackers called police to report that her son had run away with a friend and might be suicidal. Hours later, as police were searching for the two teenagers, authorities found three victims with gunshot wounds outside the Islamic Center of San Diego, including Abdullah.Shortly afterwards, police found the two suspects - aged 17 and 18 - dead of self-inflicted wounds in a vehicle blocks away from the mosque.The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime, Wahl said,
The commission - Australia's most powerful form of public inquiry - was announced in January, three weeks after two gunmen opened fire at a Jewish event at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people.The interim report by former High Court judge Virginia Bell gave 14 recommendations although five of them remain confidential due to national security concerns.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a National Security Committee meeting had agreed to implement all of Bell's recommendations.On 14 December last year, a father-and-son duo - armed with rifles and shotguns - targeted a Sunday afternoon event at a Bondi Beach park.Sajid Akram, 50, was killed by police at the scene of the shootings and his son Naveed Akram - the other alleged attacker - was critically injured and later transferred from hospital to prison.The 24-year-old has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist attack.Thursday's report recommended that state and federal governments should prioritise efforts to finalise and implement "nationally consistent" firearms reforms as well as a proposed gun buyback scheme.Gun reforms put forward in the wake of the shooting have received a lukewarm response from some of Australia's states and territories, with Queensland, for example, refusing the buyback scheme and cap on firearms ownership.It also said New South Wales (NSW) police procedures used for Jewish high holy days should be extended to other "high risk Jewish festivals and events, especially those with a public facing element".Other recommendations included a review of joint counter-terrorism teams in Australia - made up of federal and state police forces, and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) - as well as making the counter-terrorism commissioner's role full time.The prime minister and national cabinet ministers should also take part in counter-terrorism exercises within nine months of each federal election, the report said.The report said that it had not identified any gap in existing legal frameworks that would have prevented the attack, or impeded the ability of law enforcement or other agencies to respond to it."In these respects, no issue requiring urgent or immediate action has been identified," the report said.It added that any failures to identify and act upon intelligence in the lead up to the shooting and in the allocation of police to the Hanukkah festival would be addressed in hearings, though some of these may be closed to the public.Albanese said the report showed "no urgent changes" were required but that governments "could always do better". David Ossip, President of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, said the report was "an important first step" in examining the circumstances around the attack but that it was "only part of the picture".Antisemitism was "not only a law enforcement issue" but a "societal issue" and "the environment for Jewish Australians had been deteriorating well before Bondi", he said.A first series of public hearings for the inquiry, which is looking at the rise of antisemitism in society and institutions and the events leading up to the mass shooting, is to begin on Monday. A final report is to be delivered on the anniversary of the shooting. In the days and weeks after the attack - Australia's worst mass shooting in almost 30 years - Albanese resisted calls to launch a royal commission, saying it would create disunity in the community.Instead, he said a review into intelligence and law enforcement agencies by the country's former spy chief De
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