{"id":329222,"date":"2026-05-23T10:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T10:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/329222\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T10:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T10:02:15","slug":"a-court-school-officials-and-police-failed-to-block-suspected-mosque-shooter-from-fathers-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/329222\/","title":{"rendered":"A court, school officials and police failed to block suspected mosque shooter from father’s guns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>Police parked outside Islamic Center of San Diego, the site of a shooting on Monday, May 18. (Photo by Thomas Murphy\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

One of the suspected teen shooters in Monday\u2019s hate-inspired rampage<\/a> at the Islamic Center of San Diego had gone to high school dressed like mass shooters, and once came to class dressed as the TV show serial killer Dexter Morgan, according to court documents obtained by Times of San Diego.<\/p>\n

The documents, in which a detective concludes that the teen \u201cwould be a danger not only to himself but to others,\u201d reveal the extent to which then-17-year-old Caleb Vazquez\u2019s parents, classmates, school administrators and the Chula Vista Police knew about his radicalization and idolization of mass shooters and of Adolf Hitler<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, police determined there was cause to seek a gun-violence restraining order<\/a> \u2014 which allows courts to remove a person\u2019s firearms if they pose a threat to themselves or others, following a petition from a third party \u2014 to prevent Vazquez from buying or possessing weapons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[His] behavior is very concerning. He has become increasingly obsessed with mass shooters, school shootings, neo-Nazi affiliations, and Hitler. He has expressed suicidal ideations and thoughts of self-harm,\u201d reads the January 2025 petition for the gun violence restraining order.<\/p>\n

That order was temporarily granted, and the father stated he would place the 12 guns in storage<\/a>. In February 2025, Chula Vista Police requested to continue the hearing on the gun violence restraining order until March 11. <\/p>\n

On March 11, 2025, San Diego Superior Court Judge Enrique Camarena rescinded the restraining order and dismissed the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The court documents do not spell out why the order was rescinded. They do not say whether the guns were ever confiscated or why the order was not permanently granted, despite the detective\u2019s declaration.<\/p>\n

Chula Vista police detectives were called in January 2025 after two of Vazquez\u2019s friends went to High Tech High Chula Vista\u2019s vice principal to report that Vazquez had told them not to go to school the next day, implying that he was planning violence, according to the restraining order.<\/p>\n

The night of the report, detectives went to Vazquez\u2019s Chula Vista home to conduct a welfare check. Marco Vazquez, Caleb\u2019s father, was \u201cuncooperative,\u201d and there was a \u201clack of cooperation\u201d with police, the gun violence restraining order says. The family also prohibited detectives from interviewing Caleb Vazquez alone, and his parents refused to let detectives view what Caleb Vazquez\u2019s friends had said were \u201cconcerning\u201d social media posts, according to the order.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The teen\u2019s father then informed police that he had 12 registered firearms in the home and assured detectives that he would secure them, the documents show.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe father\u2019s lack of cooperation hindered officers\u2019 ability to fully assess and evaluate the reported concerns and ensure the safety of all parties involved,\u201d reads a court declaration from Chula Vista Detective Nicholas How, dated four days after the vice principal\u2019s call to police.<\/p>\n

While detectives could not interview the teen alone, they did speak to him with his parents present. Records show the teen said he was \u201chaving ongoing issues with a \u2018trans student’\u201d and other students were bullying him for \u201cbeing the shy, quiet kid, for the way he dresses, and for having conservative views about the world,\u201d reads How\u2019s declaration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The parents, How wrote, were supportive of their son and believed the allegations that he was planning school violence were false.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following day, detectives visited High Tech High in Chula Vista and spoke to the vice principal, who had contacted them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The vice principal informed them that Vazquez had \u201cdisplayed troubling behaviors over the past year,\u201d and had made comments about school shootings and other violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The school administrator said Vazquez had been seen punching a tree after his girlfriend broke up with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the days and weeks that followed, Vazquez had come to school dressed as the fictional serial killer Dexter Morgan from the HBO program \u201cDexter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Vazquez] emulating such a character suggests a troubling fascination with themes of violence, control and morality centered around killing,\u201d the detective wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vazquez, according to the restraining order, spoke of a \u201cday of retribution\u201d and \u201cexpressed fascination\u201d with mass shooters who conducted fatal attacks in Isla Vista, California; El Paso; Norway and elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis act could be interpreted as an alarming indicator of deeper psychological concerns or a potential fixation on violent or dangerous ideologies,\u201d How wrote in his declaration.<\/p>\n

The vice principal also told detectives that Vazquez was seen pointing a banana at other students and pretending it was a gun, and showing up to school with a shaved head so he could look similar to those in concentration camps. The vice principal also denied that there was any transgender student with the name that Vazquez had told police during their interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following his interview with police, Vazquez told school resource officers and members of the San Diego County Psychiatric Emergency Response Team that he was upset about his breakup and was also becoming \u201cincreasingly infatuated\u201d with mass shootings and World War II. Vazquez said he idolized Adolf Hitler and was gathering information about him and mass shooters on the \u201cdark web.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the interviews with school resource officers and the county\u2019s Psychiatric Emergency Response Team, Vazquez was placed on a 72-hour mental health hold for evaluation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the totality of it all, with the depression starting from last year with the breakup from his girlfriend and obsession of mass shooters, along with his father owning twelve firearms inside the residence, it was determined [Vazquez] would be a danger not only to himself but to others as well,\u201d How wrote.<\/p>\n

How recommended a gun violence restraining order \u2014\u00a0a specific type of court order that bars someone from owning guns or ammunition \u2014\u00a0was needed to prevent Vazquez from purchasing firearms on his then-upcoming 18th birthday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to a court minute order, also obtained by the Times of San Diego, on March 11, 2025, Judge Enrique Camarena, less than two months after police visited Vazquez, officially rescinded the temporary gun violence restraining order and dismissed it \u201cwithout prejudice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police parked outside Islamic Center of San Diego, the site of a shooting on Monday, May 18. (Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[136725,134804,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-329222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-islamic-center-attack","tag-islamic-center-shooting","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}