Statistically, attending a weekly worship service is a remarkably safe thing to do. Global annual attendance totals many billions; the number of people killed in attacks on individual houses of worship in any given year is generally less than a few hundred. Killings in the U.S. are even more rare.But an attack on Monday targeting a mosque in San Diego — the latest in a spate of recent attacks targeting religious buildings — has intensified fear among clergy and worshippers. Here are some of the notable attacks on U.S. houses of worship in the past 15 years:May 18, 2026: Two teenage suspects opened fire at the largest mosque in San Diego County on Monday, killing a security guard and two other men before killing themselves, authorities said. The case is being investigated as a hate crime.March 12, 2026: An armed man crashed his pickup truck into the Temple Israel synagogue in the Detroit area and then killed himself while exchanging gunfire with security. The 41-year-old shooter had just lost four members of his family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. Israeli authorities said some of his family were members of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Sept. 29, 2025: Four people were killed and nine more wounded when a man in Michigan drove his pickup truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township and set its chapel on fire. The 40-year-old gunman was killed by law enforcement responders. The FBI said he had “anti-religious beliefs against the Mormon religious community.”
