By Philicia Tonangoye
Photo by Leonard LMT, creative commons 4.0 via Wikipedia: San Diego Islamic Center, hours after the shooting
The deadly attack at San Diego’s Islamic center on Monday was planned by two teens who met online and became radicalized in a hate speech forum. The pair eventually took their own lives after shooting and killing three men at the region’s largest mosque.
Cain Lee Clark. 17, was a San Diegan and attended online classes at James Madison High School since 2021 and was set to graduate a few weeks after the attack. His mother called 911 to report him missing, stating that he was suicidal and had taken guns from the family household, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. The guns used in the attack came from Clark’s family home, CNN reported, citing a law enforcement source. A search of the residence found 30 firearms.
Caleb Liam Vasques, 18, lived in Chula Vista and graduated from High Tech High in Chula Vista.
According to NBC 7 San Diego, the father of Caleb Vasquez voluntary removed from their Chula Vista home, all weapon and knives, last year as he was concerned his son “was involved in suspicious behaviour idolizing Nazis and mass shooters.”
CNN reported that last year, law enforcement filed a gun violence emergency protective order, after Vasquez was placed on a psychiatric hold, to seize firearms in his parents’ home amid concerns about the teenager’s “suspicious behavior.” He had been in a mental health program up until the day before the shooting, a federal law enforcement official told CNN.
In a statement the Vasquez family said their son was on the autism spectrum and was brainwashed online, “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. 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.” said the Vasquez family.
Both shooters wrote and published online a 75-page manifesto titled “The New Crusade: Sons of Tarrant”, a reference to Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people and injured 89 more in an attack on a mosque and an Islamic center in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, according to many sources.
Upon reviews by The Times on the writings, they found hate toward Muslims, Jews, Blacks, Latinos and LGBTQ+ communities. The manifesto is still under investigation as well as the presumes videos showing the killings.
The FBI has asked the public and media to not share photos of the two teens as it “as it only fuels speculation and hurts innocent people,” the agency’s San Diego office stated. The statement indicated that one photo online was incorrectly identified, adding, “The FBI and the San Diego Police Department will not be releasing their photos so to not give any platform to the hate the subjects intended to inject.”