{"id":8987,"date":"2026-05-23T09:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8987"},"modified":"2026-05-23T09:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:31:22","slug":"behavior-of-teen-in-mosque-shooting-led-police-to-seize-family-guns-a-year-before-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8987","title":{"rendered":"Behavior of teen in mosque shooting led police to seize family guns a year before attack"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By SAFIYAH RIDDLE<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the teenagers who killed three people at a San Diego mosque this week had been flagged to law enforcement last year for exhibiting alarming behavior and idolizing Nazis, prompting police to confiscate his father\u2019s guns, according to court records.<\/p>\n

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The officers who conducted a welfare check at the home of Caleb Vazquez wrote that he was \u201cinvolved in suspicious behavior idolizing nazis and mass shooters,\u201d and obtained a court order on Jan. 29, 2025, to remove 26 guns under a 2014 California law allowing the confiscation of firearms from people considered dangerous.<\/p>\n

Vazquez\u2019s parents had voluntarily surrendered the guns days earlier, according to an affidavit signed by Marco Vazquez, the father.<\/p>\n

Authorities have said Vazquez, 18, met Cain Clark, 17, online, where they both were radicalized. Police haven\u2019t shared more details about how they knew each other, or specified whose weapons were used in the shooting.<\/p>\n

Cain Clark\u2019s mother told law enforcement that weapons were missing from her home on Monday, kicking off an hourslong search for the teens before they committed the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego and then killed themselves, police said.<\/p>\n

Court filings indicate mental health struggles<\/h4>\n

Court filings show Vazquez decided to \u201csecure all sharp knives in the home\u201d and surrender the firearms that they had kept in a secure gun safe when they became aware of unspecified serious allegations against their son. He was also previously committed to an involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. The court filings, first reported by The New York Times, didn\u2019t say what he was admitted for.<\/p>\n

The Vazquez family said in a statement released Thursday that Caleb Vazquez was on the autism spectrum and had grown to resent parts of his identity \u2014 but didn\u2019t specify what aspects were challenging to him.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cComing from a diverse family that not only includes immigrants but Muslims as well, we always taught the importance of acceptance, compassion, and love for one another. We are proud of the different backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, and religions within our family and community,\u201d their statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d said their statement, released through their attorney Colin Rudolph.<\/p>\n

His family said they tried to get him help<\/h4>\n

They encouraged him to seek help and he spent time in rehabilitation centers, the statement said. Vazquez\u2019s parents did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment from The Associated Press. An attorney who represented Vazquez\u2019s parents when their guns were confiscated also didn\u2019t immediately respond to calls.<\/p>\n

In writings by Vazquez and Clark that expressed white supremacist views, Vazquez wrote of having \u201csome mental health issues\u201d and being rejected by women. They suggest both teenagers idolized previous shooters who have died while carrying out mass shootings. The writings expressed hatred toward Jewish people, Muslims, Black people and a range of other groups.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n

Vazquez left the San Diego Unified School District in June 2018 after attending Washington Elementary up until the 5th grade, district spokesperson James Canning told The Associated Press. It\u2019s unclear where he went to school after that.<\/p>\n

Clark was enrolled in a virtual high school in the district, Canning said.<\/p>\n

Police began searching for the teens on Monday after Clark\u2019s mother called to say her son was suicidal and ran away. She told them he was dressed in camouflage, had taken multiple weapons from the home, and was with an acquaintance, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Officers were still interviewing the mother about places the teens might be when the shooting began at the county\u2019s largest mosque.<\/p>\n

De-radicalizing people is becoming more difficult<\/h4>\n

Vazquez\u2019s father said in a 2025 court statement that his family made a concerted effort to steer Caleb Vazquez back onto the right track. He said when they surrendered their weapons, they were in communication with his school, were monitoring his social media presence closely and he was in therapy twice a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe observe all of his online activities, who he talks to, what he talks about, and who he is friends with,\u201d Marco Vazquez wrote, emphasizing that he didn\u2019t support his son\u2019s ideology.<\/p>\n

Some experts say it\u2019s increasingly difficult to help people drawn to the kind of radicalism Vazquez and Clark expressed.<\/p>\n

Samira Benz works for the Violence Prevention Network, which conducts interventions when people are radicalized into believing in violent extremism. Benz said the work has become increasingly complicated as the internet blurs ideologies and creates niche, meme-based languages that can be fleeting and hard to decipher.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if a parent is looking at the phone of their child, they don\u2019t necessarily see something bad is going on,\u201d Benz said.<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Javier Arciga in San Diego contributed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Dodgers\u2019 Will Smith getting \u2018a little bit of a break to re-set\u2019 amid slump<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teen killer who shot three at San Diego mosque was flagged for neo-Nazi beliefs; guns seized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBehavior of teen in mosque shooting led police to seize family guns a year before attack - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8987\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behavior of teen in mosque shooting led police to seize family guns a year before attack - 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