US Teen Indicted for Aiding and Abetting Deadly San Diego Mosque Shooting

US Teen Indicted for Aiding and Abetting Deadly San Diego Mosque Shooting

A 17-year-old North Carolina girl who recorded a livestream of the deadly May 2026 attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego and disseminated the attackers’ white supremacist manifesto has been charged with three counts of murder by aiding and abetting.

A 17-year-old girl from North Carolina has been charged with three counts of murder after prosecutors alleged she helped record and publicise a deadly attack on a mosque in San Diego that left three people dead. The teenager, identified in court records as Sarah Lindsey Santiago, was arrested last week and indicted by a grand jury on Monday, just before she was due to begin the new school year. Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill announced the charges at a news conference in Winston-Salem, explaining that under North Carolina law, a person who aids and abets a crime can be held criminally responsible in the same way as the person who carried it out. “The individual here, locally, was the person who was recording the livestream,” O’Neill said. “She disseminated that information and she published their manifesto.”

The teenager now faces three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy under North Carolina law. Prosecutors allege that Santiago agreed prior to the attack that she would record the livestream, distribute it, and release a document written by the attackers. According to the indictment, she carried out those tasks and also purchased a patch bearing a white supremacist symbol and sent it to one of the gunmen to wear during the attack. O’Neill explained that investigators were concerned about the teenager’s potential actions after the attack and decided to arrest her before she could return to school. “The thought of her going back to school or with the weekend approaching, holy days approaching, we didn’t know what she was capable of,” he said, referring to the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

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The shooting took place at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18, 2026, at approximately 11:40 a.m. local time. Two teenage gunmen, identified as Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, stormed the mosque armed with guns and wearing cameras mounted on GoPro-style helmets to record their attack. Prosecutors said the attackers had two aims that day: “Number one, to kill as many people as possible on that day. Secondly, they wanted this carnage and destruction recorded … livestreamed.” According to investigators, Clark and Vazquez entered the mosque and were confronted by security guard Amin Abdullah, who exchanged gunfire with them and initiated a lockdown that helped protect approximately 140 children who were inside the mosque’s school. Abdullah, who had worked as a security guard at the mosque for about a decade, was shot dead after forcing the attackers back outside. The gunmen re-entered the building and searched through rooms that had been emptied during the lockdown. They later exited again, and worshippers Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad confronted them in the parking lot. Both men were fatally shot. The suspects then fled in a vehicle and were later found dead, having apparently taken their own lives.

The three men killed were mourned as pillars of the Muslim community and credited with saving countless lives. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl described Abdullah’s actions as “heroic” and said they “undoubtedly saved lives” . “All three of our victims did not die in vain,” Wahl said. “Without distracting the attention, without delaying the actions of these two individuals, without question, there would have been many more fatalities.” Abdullah was a security guard for the mosque for about a decade and was known to friends as Brian Climax. His daughter, Hawaa Abdullah, paid a tearful tribute to her father as a man who doted on his family and was dedicated to his job. “He stood against any form of hate,” she said. Kaziha was a 78-year-old mosque elder known as Abu Ezz, and Awad was a 57-year-old Uber driver whose wife worked as a school teacher in the building. Imam Taha Hassane of the Islamic Center called them “our brothers in the community. We call them our martyrs and our heroes.”

Authorities said the teenagers had an arsenal of about 30 guns and a crossbow, which investigators believe were taken from Clark’s parents. Clark’s mother had reportedly called police about two hours before the shooting to report that her son, whom she described as suicidal, had run away from home taking three of her guns and her vehicle. Prosecutors also alleged that Clark and Vazquez had planned further attacks “at a local Jewish temple and finally at a predominantly African American high school” in San Diego. O’Neill credited the victims at the mosque with having saved countless lives by disrupting these plans.

The attackers left behind writings containing racist and antisemitic views, references to white supremacist ideologies, and hateful rhetoric toward Jewish people, Muslims, Black people, the LGBTQ+ community, and women. They cited the shooter who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 as one of their models for violence. Investigators said the shooters used cameras attached to their helmets to record the attack and livestream it. The FBI has conducted more than 100 interviews, executed 30 search warrants, and reviewed over 4 million messages in connection with the investigation. FBI Columbia Acting Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis said: “When someone has credible knowledge that a crime is being planned or committed, particularly any act of violence, the law requires them to come forward and report it. Failure to do so is not only irresponsible, but it can also be a crime.”