A teenage girl from North Carolina was indicted Monday for allegedly aiding and abetting two teenage gunmen who killed three people in a mass shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego in May, officials said.
Sarah Lindsay Santiago, 17, was indicted in Forsyth County on three counts of murder and a count of conspiracy after a multi-agency investigation found evidence she worked with the two teenage shooters to plan and to distribute a livestream of the attacks, District Attorney Jim O’Neill said.
The teenager was arrested a week prior to a grand jury indictment because law enforcement “didn’t know what she was capable of,” O’Neill said. She will be tried as an adult due to the terrorism-related charges.
“She didn’t have to be in California; she is in our jurisdiction and today, a grand jury indicted her and held her responsible for her actions leading up to that disastrous day in may for the people of California,” O’Neill said.
Two teenagers dressed in camouflage opened fire on May 18 at the mosque in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego before shooting themselves in a car nearby.
Prosecutors said Santiago sent the gunmen the hate-filled patches they wore during the attack and also released their manifest afterward.
The teenager also had multiple opportunities where the crime could have been reported before it happened, FBI Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis said.
“When someone has credible knowledge that a crime is going to be planned or going to be committed, particularly an act of violence, the law requires you to come forward,” Davis said. “The failure to do so must have consequences.”
San Diego police said a mom called 911 two hours before the shooting to report her son and a weapon missing from their home.
Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad were killed in the attack. The three men were outside the Islamic Center and its school at the time of the shooting. All three men were credited with protecting the nearly 150 students inside and countless others; after the shooting, the gunmen had planned to go to a Jewish temple and a predominately Black high school.
O’Neill said the attack was believed to be the first to be “ideologically-motivated” in a century, and he urged parents to pay attention to what their kids are doing online.
“This underground subculture of hate, they listen to each other, they talk to each other on coded platforms. It radicalizes one another to the point where they carry out these horrific crimes of violence and murder,” O’Neill said.
This is a developing story. Details may change as information is released.