Family says suspect in San Diego mosque shooting was influenced by hateful content online

One of the gunmen in a deadly shooting at a San Diego mosque had been served a gun violence restraining order last year after police said he was “involved in suspicious behavior, idolizing Nazis and mass shooters.”

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Police made a wellness check to the Vazquez home in January 2025 and sometime thereafter Caleb Vazquez was placed on a psychiatric hold, according to court documents filed in California Superior Court in San Diego County. This resulted in the Chula Vista Police Department serving Vazquez with the gun violence restraining order, which prohibits someone from buying or owning firearms, ammunition and magazines.

At that time, officers asked his father, Marco Vazquez, if he had any guns at the house, according to a declaration filed with the court by Marco Vazquez. He confirmed to officers that there were firearms in the house but explained that he kept them locked in a safe that was stored in a locked closet, which he said no one else had access to.

When officers asked to enter the home to confirm this, Marco Vazquez invoked his Fourth Amendment right, which protects people from unreasonable searches. This prompted police to later serve him with a gun violence restraining order as well, according to a declaration filed in February 2025. Officers said in the order that Marco Vazquez had 12 firearms registered to him.

According to the police paperwork, Marco Vazquez was served with the warrant because his son was “involved in suspicious behavior” and “he would not allow officers to confirm if firearms were stored properly.”

Before Caleb and Marco Vazquez were served with the restraining orders, Marco Vazquez said he and his wife “discussed the events” and he “voluntarily took all firearms, ammunition, and accessories” out of his home and secured sharp knives as well, the court documents said. The weapons were transferred to a federal firearms licensee for storage, he said in the declaration.

He said in his declaration that he brought the paperwork confirming the removal to the police station. It was then, he said, that police served him with the gun violence restraining order.

Marco Vazquez also said, according to the declaration, that he and his wife began monitoring their son and his online activity in partnership with his school, placed him in therapy and began “supervising him daily since the incident.” It is not clear what incident the documents are referring to.

On Monday, over a year later, Vazquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, killed three people at the Islamic Center of San Diego before they killed themselves, authorities said. Officials believe they met online.

His family has since said his exposure to hateful and extremist content online “contributed to his descent into radicalized ideologies and violent beliefs.”

The Vazquez family apologized for the actions Caleb Vazquez is accused of, which they said there was no excuse for, and spoke out against online spaces that “normalize hatred” in a statement provided to NBC San Diego on Thursday by the family’s attorney.

Attempts to reach Clark’s immediate family have not been successful.

Authorities investigating their motives were trying to authenticate a lengthy document posted online that the gunmen may have written, law enforcement officials have said. The writings include anti-Islamic, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ views, Nazi iconography and references to accelerationism , a white supremacist ideology that promotes violence to hasten the formation of a white “ethnostate.”

The family said that Vazquez’s beliefs do not align with their own and that they “stand firmly against the ideology and actions that led to this tragedy.”

In the two-page statement, they apologized to the families of the three people who were killed, whom they thanked for preventing more deaths, and to a landscaper who was shot at.

“Our son was on the autism spectrum, and it is painfully clear to us now that he struggled not only with accepting parts of his own identity but also grew to resent them,” the family said.

They also said he may have been radicalized online.

“We believe this, combined with exposure to hateful rhetoric, extremist content, and propaganda spread across parts of the internet, social media, and other online platforms, contributed to his descent into radicalized ideologies and violent beliefs,” the statement said. “While there is no excuse for his actions, we have come to recognize how dangerous online spaces are that normalize hatred.”

Vazquez’s family said they took measures to help him through what they described as “his mental instability” and encouraged him to seek help, which they said he did voluntarily.

They condemned hateful and extremist beliefs and addressed people who may share similar ideologies, encouraging them to seek help.

“To anyone struggling with violent thoughts, anger, radicalization, or hatred toward others, please seek help before more innocent lives are destroyed,” the statement said.

The three people killed in the shooting were Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad. No one in the building, where as many as 140 children were sheltering, was injured.

Authorities said Abdullah, a security guard at the mosque, exchanged gunfire with the shooters. After he was shot, Abdullah used his radio to implement a lockdown protocol, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl has said. The gunmen ultimately saw Kaziha and Awad in the parking lot outside and fatally shot them, Wahl said.

The family said that while they are grieving as parents, they are heartbroken for the victims’ families and the affected community.

“We can only pray that his actions and words do not inspire or incite further hatred or violence toward any community,” the statement said. “They were the actions of an immensely lost, troubled, and misguided soul, and we hope no other family or community ever has to endure this kind of tragedy again.”