'I saw bad stuff,' says 9-year-old who huddled in closet during San Diego mosque shooting

'My legs were shaking and my hands and my head were hurting a lot. I felt like a rock,' Odai Shanah says

Nine-year-old Odai Shanah, whose mother emigrated from war-torn Gaza and settled in Southern California two decades ago, was among dozens of children forced to huddle in classrooms on Monday when deadly gunfire erupted at the mosque where they attend school.

Men console each other as they sit on a sidewalk, near the scene of a reported active shooter situation at the Islamic Centre, in San Diego, California, US, May 18, 2026. REUTERS

In an interview hours after the late-morning shooting at the Islamic Centre of San Diego, Shanah recalled hearing a barrage of gunshots coming from outside the walls of the complex, which also houses an Islamic day school.

Shanah said he and his classmates were quickly ushered into a closet where they crowded together, trembling in fear as 12 to 16 more shots rang out. At some point after the shooting ceased, they heard members of a police SWAT team shouting from outside the classroom.

A child holds his parents' hands as they leave the mosque, at the scene of a shooting at the Islamic Centre in San Diego, California, US, May 18, 2026. REUTERS

“‘OK, open up,’ then they opened the door,” the boy recounted.

As they were escorted out of the building by police officers, “we saw a bunch of bad stuff, people laying down and yeah, bad stuff,” Shanah said, using a phrase that he acknowledged meant he was referring to the victims’ bodies.

“My legs were shaking and my hands and my head were hurting a lot. I felt like a rock,” he said.

Women hug as they wait for the children to walk out of the mosque, at a collecting area, at the scene of a shooting at the Islamic Centre in San Diego, California, US, May 18, 2026. REUTERS

Police said three men affiliated with the Islamic Centre, including a security guard credited by authorities with preventing greater bloodshed, were shot dead outside the mosque by two teen suspects, who later took their own lives several blocks away.

Read More: Five people, including two suspected shooters, killed at San Diego Islamic Centre

Both of Shanah’s parents permitted their son, a US-born relative of a Reuters employee, to be interviewed by name for this article and to recount the experience in his own words.

A parent passes under yellow tape cordoning an area, as he carries his child while they leave the mosque, at the scene of a shooting at the Islamic Centre in San Diego, California, US, May 18, 2026. REUTERS

Emerging from his hiding place after the gunfire ended, Shanah said he witnessed police kick in the door of an adjacent classroom as SWAT teams advanced room to room through the building.

“They told us to put our hands up and form a big line,” the boy said, adding that he saw a group of younger students forming another line to be evacuated before he and his classmates were ushered through the complex to the exterior.

The gunmen never entered the interior of the mosque complex, and all students at the school, known as Bright Horizon Academy, were accounted for and safe, authorities said afterwards.

Emergency workers respond at the scene of a reported active shooter situation at the Islamic Centre in San Diego, California, US, May 18, 2026. REUTERS

The gun violence that shook the Islamic Centre and the close-knit surrounding community surely came as a particular shock to Shanah’s mother, who fled Gaza for the United States in 2006, the year of months-long clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinians in the seaside enclave. His father emigrated from Jordan to the United States in 2015.