Charges Announced
A 17-year-old North Carolina girl has been charged with murder and conspiracy in connection with the May 18 shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego that left three men dead. Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O'Neill announced the charges at a news conference in Winston-Salem on Monday, saying the teen was arrested last week and indicted by a grand jury that same day, just before she was due to begin the school year.
The girl, whose name was not released during the news conference, faces three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy. Under North Carolina law, aiding-and-abetting charges carry the same penalties as if the girl had committed the attack herself, O'Neill said.
"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 Attack
The charges stem from a shooting on May 18 at the Islamic Center of San Diego in the Clairemont neighborhood. According to authorities, Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, stormed the mosque before being driven back outside by a security guard who exchanged gunfire with them as he initiated a lockdown, helping to protect 140 children who were steps away.
The pair killed the guard, Amin Abdullah, and two other men — identified by police as Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad — before taking their own lives in a vehicle nearby. The attack left three men dead: Nadir Awad, 57; Mansour Kaziha, 78; and Amin Abdullah, 51.
O'Neill said the teens wore GoPro helmets to livestream the attack, and that three people were watching it, including a female living in the Eastern time zone. He also said a security guard got off a shot that struck and wounded Clark.
Writings and Plan
Authorities said the attackers left behind rambling writings full of vitriol against a wide range of people. The document, reviewed by CBS News, opens with an antisemitic diatribe, calls for a violent race war and references "accelerationism," one of the most violent forms of white supremacist ideology that advocates the destruction of society. The writings also cited the shooter who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, as one of their models for the violence.
"Their plan that day was to commit mass murders not only at the mosque but to follow up at a local Jewish temple and finally at a predominantly African American high school there in town," O'Neill said.
Investigators believe the two teen boys — Clark lived in San Diego, Vazquez lived in Chula Vista — met online, where they were radicalized by hate. Authorities had said the teens had stockpiled 30 guns and a crossbow, weapons taken from Clark's parents.
Legal Proceedings
The girl is being charged as an adult. O'Neill said that under state law, a 17-year-old "who engages in this unbelievably terroristic and treacherous behavior can be treated as an adult in North Carolina." He also explained the legal principle behind the charges: "a person who aids and abets another to commit a crime is guilty of that crime ... just as if he or she had personally done all of the acts necessary to constitute the crime."
O'Neill said the teen was arrested before a grand jury could indict her because "we didn't know what she was capable of." The thought of her going back to school or with the weekend approaching, holy days approaching, contributed to the decision to arrest her, he said.
The San Diego County District Attorney's Office said in a statement: "The investigation into the horrific murders of three innocent people targeting the Islamic Center of San Diego includes identifying anyone who has potential criminal liability. We are fully aware of the prosecution by the Forsyth County District Attorney's Office in North Carolina in connection with the San Diego murders and we are grateful for the efforts by DA Jim O'Neill and his office."
The announcement marks the first arrest in the case.