Family, friends, Jewish community mourn dentist gunned down in El Cajon

When Benjamin Harouni was in dental school, he explained to one of his professors that he was motivated to become a dentist, like his father, to take advantage of his position in life and help others who were not so fortunate.

“I want to do something that improves the lives of others because I’ve lived a life of privilege and full of opportunities,” Harouni wrote the professor in a letter that his childhood rabbi read Sunday at his funeral. “I know that I am at my best around others, and therefore my goal of forming genuine relationships with my patients will remind me why I chose this profession.”

Harouni, 28, was gunned down Thursday at his family’s El Cajon dental practice, allegedly by 29-year-old Mohammed Abdulkareem, a man El Cajon police described as a “disgruntled” former patient. Police said Abdulkareem also shot and wounded two other people inside the business.

Hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday morning at El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley to remember Harouni, who received a traditional Jewish burial as rain intermittently poured down on the crowd.

Jacob Harouni, one of the victim’s two younger brothers, said the large gathering was a testament to “how many souls Ben touched.” He said the family had received an outpouring of love both in person and online since Thursday’s shooting.

“Out of this act of hate, so much light has shined all over the world,” Jacob Harouni said.

He urged the mourners to carry those feelings of love and peace with them in honor and remembrance of his brother. “Please, please, please spread love and kindness and unity,” Jacob Harouni asked those gathered around the grave.

White doves released by the family of Benjamin Harouni fly above the grave site of the slain dentist Sunday at El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley.

(Alex Riggins/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Beverly Hills Councilmember Sharona Nazarian described the Harounis as an IranianAmerican Jewish family and said the Jewish community around the nation shared in the loss.

“Dr. Benjamin Harouni was a model citizen,” Nazarian said. “He gave back to his community, he was full of love, he was full of kindness.”

Rabbi Reuven Taff, who was the Harouni family’s rabbi for 25 years in Sacramento, described Harouni as “a good and loyal friend (who) was kind and compassionate to all who were caught lovingly into his net.” He said Harouni was a good athlete and an “A” student who was intellectually curious and never afraid to ask questions or challenge his teachers.

Taff related a story that Harouni’s parents told the rabbi just before their eldest son’s bar mitzvah. They said that during a trip to Jerusalem when Harouni was just 3 years old, he had placed his head against the Western Wall — a sacred place of prayer and pilgrimage for Jews — and recited a Jewish declaration of faith.

“Your son, your brother was a deeply spiritual human being and was wiser than his years,” Taff told the family. He told the mourners that Harouni chose for his mitzvah volunteer project to give of his time at the Ralph Richardson Center, a school for students with disabilities near Sacramento.

“I am not surprised that Ben chose that mitzvah project, because he was so caring and kind,” Taff said, adding that Harouni continued volunteering there even after his obligations related to his bar mitzvah were complete.

An officer holds his head in his hand Thursday evening while police investigate a shooting inside Smile Plus Dentistry & Orthodontics that wounded two people and left Benjamin Hourani dead.

(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Harouni graduated from the University of the Pacific’s Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in 2022, according to a letter from the school’s dean that Taff read Sunday.

“His kindness and compassion touched and improved many lives,” the dean, Nader Nadershahi, wrote in the letter, adding that the campus would hold a gathering Tuesday evening to honor Haroushi.

Taff also read the letter Harouni wrote to one of his former professors. “I’ve considered pursuing many professions since childhood, but my goal has always stayed consistent — to do more with what I’ve been given than those who have lived less privileged lives,” he wrote.

El Cajon police said that late Friday afternoon, Abdulkareem walked into Smile Plus Dentistry & Orthodontics on North Magnolia Avenue near East Madison Avenue and shot Harouni and two other people. Harouni died at the scene. A man in his 40s and a woman in her 20s who have not been identified were wounded.

A DMV photo of Mohammed Abdulkareem

(El Cajon Police Department)

Abdulkareem allegedly fled in a rented U-Haul pickup truck. He was arrested later that night near Balboa Park, allegedly armed with a handgun that police said he had legally purchased two weeks earlier.

El Cajon police posted a statement Friday on social media that “there is no indication the attack was racially or politically motivated.”

Fabienne Perlov, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League’s San Diego office, posted a statement Friday that “there is no indication of the murder being motivated by antisemitism.” In a follow-up statement Saturday, Perlov said “all motives” for the crime remain under consideration.

“Given the heightened threat level facing the Jewish community, it is critical that all possible motives — including antisemitism — that led to the tragic murder of Benjamin Harouni be investigated,” Perlov said.

Many mourners at Sunday’s funeral clearly believed antisemitism was a factor.

Harouni was “struck down in a senseless act of violence, in all likelihood because he was a Jew,” Taff said toward the beginning of his eulogy.

Nazarian, the Beverly Hills council member, said she didn’t know why Harouni was killed, but then added that people need to “stand up against hatred and antisemitism and unjust acts such as this” and that “his life was senselessly taken because of hate and discrimination.”

A public vigil for Harouni was held Sunday night in El Cajon while traditional Jewish mourning ceremonies were planned for the upcoming week.

More than 50 family and community members gathered in front of El Cajon City Hall — just a few blocks from where he was killed —.and held candles, comforted one another and listened as speakers talked about the joy Harouni brought to those around him.

“It’s a horrible thing, no matter who the victim was, no matter who the perpetrator was,” El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells said. “It’s one of those awful things that you pray never happens to one of your siblings.”

People wept as they listened to speeches about Harouni, who some described as a “mensch” — a Yiddish word for someone of high integrity and honor.

Harouni’s family announced they would be creating a fund called “Humans Against Hate” to honor his legacy. His brother Jacob said the fund would go toward helping “promote peace and love” in the world.