CPD focusing on houses of worship, Muslim Community Center reevaluating security after SoCal attack

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The fast-moving investigation into Monday's deadly shooting at a Southern California mosque began with a San Diego mother calling police after she discovered a note with what investigators described as "generalized hate rhetoric and speech."

When the first 911 call was made from the mosque, reporting an active shooter two hours later, it came just blocks away from where police were still speaking to the mother.

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States away in Chicago, there was a call to prayer at the city's Muslim Community Center in Albany Park on Monday night. The prayer gathered the faithful, many of whom, no doubt, were thinking of the lives lost at the Islamic Center of San Diego just hours earlier.

"We've all been sitting on the edge of our seats, just wondering what's happening," said Muslim Community Center Spokesperson Amjad Quadri.

According to San Diego police, this was a shooting in three parts. One started around 11:45 a.m. at or near the entrance of the center, which, in addition to the mosque, houses a school. A security guard and two other men were killed there. Even as police rushed to respond, a second 911 call came in. A landscaper working outside had been shot a few blocks away. Minutes after that, a third shooting was reported.

The suspects, investigators say, were 17 and 18 years old. The 17-year-old's mother alerted police of his disappearance two hours earlier, fearing he might be suicidal.

"She realized that she was missing weapons, multiple weapons. Her vehicle was missing," said San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl. She found a note that was left... There was no specific threat to any facility or any place from what we knew. There was generalized hate rhetoric and speech."

And while it is not yet clear that this was specifically meant as an anti-Islamic attack, Chicago's Muslim Community Center is already reevaluating its own security measures.

"Even though we had reviewed it recently. But we'll review it again to make sure something like this doesn't get replicated here," Quadri said.

At least one Muslim community leader there called on elected officials to hold themselves accountable for the normalization of hate speech in the public sphere.

"We can ask them to be true American leaders. Stand up against any kind of otherizing, dehumanizing, and hatemongering from any peers that they might have," said CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab.

It is important to note that according to Chicago police, although there is no actionable intelligence here that would indicate anything similar, CPD is, out of an abundance of caution, paying special attention to houses of worship throughout the city.