A 17-year-old girl from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has been indicted on murder charges for allegedly recording and sharing a livestream of a mass shooting that killed three men at a San Diego mosque in May, prosecutors said Monday.
Sarah Lindsey Santiago was nowhere near California the day of the attack. A Forsyth County grand jury indicted her anyway, on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. She is charged as an adult and was being held without bond.
Her attorney, Alan Doorasamy Sr., rejects the case. “Suffice it to say, this matter is sub judice and at this time I can confirm that my client is innocent of all these charges,” he wrote in an email to The Associated Press, adding that he had not received evidence from law enforcement and did not explain any connection between Santiago and the attackers.
How prosecutors charged someone who wasn’t there
The charge leans on a North Carolina rule about aiding and abetting. Under that law, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill said, a person who helps another 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.” The penalty is the same as if she had done the shooting herself.
O’Neill made the point plainly at a news conference in Winston-Salem. “She didn’t have to be in California, she’s in our jurisdiction,” he said. “And today, a grand jury indicted her and held her responsible for her actions leading up to that disastrous day in May.”
What prosecutors say Santiago did
According to the indictment, Santiago agreed before the attack to record the livestream as the gunmen filmed it, pass the footage around afterward, and release a document the shooters wrote to justify what they did. She carried out each of those tasks, the indictment says.
“The individual here, locally, was the person who was recording the livestream,” O’Neill said. “She disseminated that information and she published their manifesto.”
Three people watched the initial livestream, O’Neill said. It was not clear whether investigators had identified the other two, and the indictment did not name the platforms where the video was recorded or shared. The gunmen filmed themselves using GoPro helmets.
Before the attack, prosecutors say, Santiago bought a Sonnenrad patch and sent it to Caleb Vazquez, who wore it during the attack. The Sonnenrad, or sunwheel, also called the Black Sun, is an emblem the Nazis invented in the 1930s and a symbol of the neo-Nazi movement, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The attack that killed three men
The shooting began about 11:42 a.m. on May 18. Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, parked in the Islamic Center of San Diego’s lot, ran past security and opened fire.
Amin Abdullah, a 51-year-old security guard, traded gunfire with them and wounded Clark before starting a lockdown that shielded 140 children who were just steps away. Abdullah died of his injuries. Authorities have called him a hero who saved lives.
The two men pushed into the building, then went out a back door into the parking lot, where they shot and killed Mansour Kaziha, 78, and Nadir Awad, 57. They fired at a landscaper, who was struck on his helmet and suffered minor injuries, then drove off and took their own lives in the car.
Clark’s mother called San Diego police twice that morning. At 9:42 a.m. she reported her son missing along with one of her firearms, a call police logged as a runaway juvenile and which made no mention of suicidal or violent behavior. At 10:41 a.m. she called again to report a suicide note, hate-filled writings and more missing weapons. She said he had left with a companion, both dressed in camouflage. Officers were still trying to find the pair when the first shots came in.
Two more targets were on the list
The mosque was only the first stop. O’Neill said the pair planned to follow the attack with mass murders at a local Jewish temple and at a public high school in the city. The indictment says the third target was African American students at the school.
Court documents name the second target as Kehilat Ariel Messianic Synagogue, a Messianic Jewish congregation in San Diego. The high school was not named.
Searches of homes tied to the shooters turned up more than 30 guns and a crossbow, along with rifles, ammunition, tactical gear and electronics, police said in May. The guns used in the attack were not registered to either shooter, and how they obtained them remains under investigation.
What the shooters left behind
The gunmen left behind long, hate-filled writings. The manifesto opens with an antisemitic passage, calls for a violent race war, and references “accelerationism,” an extreme strand of white supremacist ideology that pushes for the destruction of society.
They pointed to the man who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 as one of their models. Their writing spread hatred toward Jewish people, Muslims and Islam, the LGBTQ+ community, Black people, women, and both the political left and right. Vazquez wrote of having “some mental health issues” and of being rejected by women.
O’Neill described the world the two teenagers moved in. “There exists in our world an underground subculture. It’s an echo chamber of intense hate against different cultures and religions,” he said. “Cain and Vazquez, by what is contained in their manifesto, seemed to hate everyone, regardless of skin color, politics, religion or ethnicity.”
Warnings that never came, prosecutors say
Law enforcement said Santiago had several chances to warn people or report what she knew before the shooting, and did not take them. Investigators said she and the two shooters were pulled deeper into extremism on private internet echo chambers and encrypted messaging channels, the same kinds of spaces where footage of the attack was later meant to circulate.
O’Neill used the case to press a point to parents: pay close attention to what your children are doing online. Winston-Salem Police Chief William Penn Jr. said distance was no protection. “If you commit a crime, especially a heinous crime, you will not be protected by distance,” he said.
A family’s explanation
The family of Caleb Vazquez released a written statement saying he was on the autism spectrum and had come to resent parts of his own identity. They believe that, combined with hateful material he found online, pushed him toward radicalization.
Santiago’s attorney has stood by her innocence and said he still had not seen the evidence against his client. No trial date has been set.
Why prosecutors moved before school started
Santiago was arrested on Aug. 27, days before the new school year, and indicted Monday. O’Neill said the timing was on his mind.
“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.
Reaction from the FBI and San Diego
Mark Remily, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau’s San Diego field office, said the case carried a warning. “Today’s indictment sends a clear message: physical distance from an attack does not place someone beyond accountability for the role they allegedly played in making it happen,” he said in a statement. He added that law enforcement would pursue those connections “wherever the evidence leads, including when juveniles are involved.”
Tazheen Nizam, who leads the San Diego office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said everyone involved should be held accountable. “We as a community need to invest in dismantling anti-Muslim hate,” she said.
The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, which is running its own investigation, said in a statement that its work “includes identifying anyone who has potential criminal liability.” It said it was “fully aware” of the North Carolina prosecution and thanked O’Neill’s office for its efforts.
If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day by call or text.
