Odai Shanah was nine years old when gunfire erupted at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday. He was in class at the mosque's day school when the shooting began, and his account offers a raw view of what children experienced during the attack.
Shanah told Reuters that he heard a barrage of gunshots from outside, followed by chaos as educators rushed students into classrooms. He and dozens of other children huddled together, trembling as 12 to 16 additional shots rang out after they were crammed into a closet.
The boy's mother emigrated from Gaza two decades ago and settled in southern California. She granted permission for her son to speak with the news outlet about what he witnessed.
When the shooting stopped, a tactical police team shouted from outside the classroom. Officers told the children to open the door, and Shanah described being escorted out in a single-file line with hands raised. That walk left an indelible mark on the nine-year-old.
"We saw a bunch of bad stuff, people laying down and yeah, bad stuff," Shanah said, referring to bodies he and other children encountered as they left the building. "My legs were shaking and my hands and my head were like hurting a lot. I felt like a rock."
Three adults affiliated with the Islamic Center were killed in the attack, including a security guard who authorities credited with preventing further casualties. Two gunmen, aged 17 and 18, died in the incident after apparently taking their own lives in a stolen vehicle they used to reach the mosque.
San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said the shooting is being investigated as a hate crime. A note was discovered by the mother of one of the suspects, and investigators found evidence of hate rhetoric involved in the planning of the attack, though Wahl noted no specific threats had been made to the facility beforehand.
The incident underscores a grim reality for American youth. Gun violence remains the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States, with thousands of young people affected directly or indirectly by such incidents each year.
Author James Rodriguez: "A nine-year-old forced to see bodies in his own school hallway is a sentence that should break any reader's heart and demand answers about why we keep accepting this as normal."
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