Behavior of Teen in Mosque Shooting Led Police to Seize Family Guns a Year Before Attack
Police filed a gun violence restraining order after officers said Caleb Vazquez showed Nazi and mass-shooter idolization, court records show.
- On Monday, 18-year-old Caleb Vazquez and 17-year-old Cain Clark attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing three people before taking their own lives; the FBI reported the teens left behind extremist writings.
- In January 2025, Chula Vista police seized 26 firearms from the home of Marco Vazquez after officers flagged Caleb for 'suspicious behavior' idolizing Nazis, prompting the father's voluntary surrender.
- The Vazquez family stated Caleb was on the autism spectrum and believed online radicalization 'contributed to his descent into radicalized ideologies,' expressing they were 'heartbroken and devastated' by the violence.
- Three victims—security guard Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha , and Nadir Awad—were killed; authorities are investigating how the teenagers obtained their weapons.
- Experts like Samira Benz of the Violence Prevention Network note online radicalization creates 'niche, meme-based languages' difficult to decipher, making parental monitoring increasingly complicated even with close supervision.
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Why classmates, school officials and Chula Vista police asked a court — unsuccessfully — to keep one of the suspected mosque shooters away from his dad’s guns
A Chula Vista detective declared last year that one of the suspected mosque shooters was dangerous based on his neo-Nazi obsessions.
Behavior of teen in mosque shooting led police to seize family guns a year before attack - The Boston Globe
The officers who conducted a welfare check at the home of Caleb Vazquez wrote that he was “involved in suspicious behavior idolizing nazis and mass shooters."
Police Seized Guns From Home of San Diego Mosque Shooter After Alarming Behavior
SAN DIEGO — More than a year before Caleb Vazquez and a friend attacked a mosque in San Diego and killed three people, the police were so alarmed by Vazquez’s behavior that they secured a court order to confiscate his father’s guns. “Child was involved in suspicious behavior idolizing nazis and mass shooters,” a police officer wrote in a January 2025 protective order. Vazquez, who was 18 when he was found dead Monday shortly after the police say…
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