![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sut-l-sarah-santiago-01.jpg\")
Sarah Santiago. (Winston-Salem Police Department)<\/p>\nA North Carolina teen was charged Monday with murder and conspiracy, accused of aiding and abetting the two teenage gunmen behind the May shooting rampage at the Islamic Center of San Diego that left three men dead.<\/p>\n
Officials said the girl, who turned 17 years old less than six weeks before the attack, helped by disseminating the livestream of the assault and releasing the manifesto the two teens had authored. The teen, identified in court documents as Sarah Lindsey Santiago, was arrested last week and indicted Monday. She is being charged as an adult in North Carolina state court.<\/p>\n
Sarah Santiago. (Winston-Salem Police Department)<\/p>\n
On May 18<\/a>, Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, stormed the Clairemont mosque<\/a>, killed three men, including a security guard who engaged in a gunbattle with them, then drove off. They fired a shot at a landscaper<\/a> a few blocks over, then drove a little farther and killed themselves.<\/p>\n Investigators believe that the two teen boys \u2014 Clark lived in San Diego, Vazquez lived in Chula Vista \u2014 met online<\/a>, where they were radicalized by hate. Both expressed broad hatred toward multiple groups in a manifesto they had written. Authorities recovered more than 30 firearms and tactical gear during searches of their homes.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s news conference in Winston-Salem, where the girl lives, included new details of the San Diego attack \u2014 including that the gunmen had planned to follow the mosque shooting by going to a nearby Jewish synagogue, then a high school, where they planned to target Black students.<\/p>\n \u201cCain and Vazquez, by what is contained in their manifesto, seem to hate everyone, regardless of skin color, politics, religion or ethnicity,\u201d Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O\u2019Neill told reporters. Winston-Salem is in Forsyth County.<\/p>\n Authorities did not name the synagogue at the news conference. However, the indictment identifies it as Kehilat Ariel Messianic Synagogue, which is less than 2 miles northwest of the Islamic Center. No one from the synagogue responded Monday to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Authorities likewise did not name the high school, and neither does the indictment. San Diego police also declined to identify the school. The synagogue sits roughly a half-mile from Madison High School. Clark, a senior, was loosely associated with Madison but not a student there; he attended an online school and had wrestled with Madison\u2019s team for three years. Vazquez had graduated in 2025 from High Tech High in Chula Vista.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill said the teens wore GoPro helmets to livestream the attack. Investigators learned that three people were watching it, including a female. But all they knew about her initially was she was in the Eastern time zone.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill said the teen was arrested before a grand jury could indict her because, with the new school year approaching, \u201cwe didn\u2019t know what she was capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n The girl\u2019s defense attorney, Alan Doorasamy Sr., confirmed he had been hired to represent her. \u201c(A)t this time, I can confirm that my client is innocent of all these charges,\u201d he said in a statement to the Union-Tribune.<\/p>\n He elaborated more fully in a statement to the New York Times: \u201cThis case is a major tragedy for the victims, their families, communities and America at large. This incident touches on major issues in the U.S., including youth and social media and mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe world will soon know the facts that caused this major tragedy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill said that federal authorities evaluated whether to prosecute Santiago, but under federal law she was looking at maybe three or four years in prison if convicted, so officials approached his office about prosecuting under North Carolina law.<\/p>\n The online court docket indicates her first appearance in court was Friday. She was denied bond. Her next court appearance is set for Sept. 21.<\/p>\n The state law she is being charged under is \u201cclear,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cAlthough he or she personally does not do any of the acts necessary to constitute the crime, a person who aids and abets another to commit a crime is guilty of that crime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n FBI Charlotte Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis said the girl had \u201cmultiple opportunities\u201d to alert authorities about the plan, and that failure to do so must have consequences.<\/p>\n \u201cToo often in this age of technology, people attempt to disappear behind their keyboards and their screens. You\u2019re still responsible for what you do,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n The indictment also alleges the teen girl bought a patch bearing a Nazi symbol and sent it to one of the teens, who wore it during the attack.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill said the evidence shows the San Diego County teens\u2019 \u201cpurpose and plan\u201d that day was twofold: \u201cNumber one was to kill as many people possible on that day. And secondly, they wanted this \u2014 their carnage and destruction \u2014 recorded, livestreamed and disseminated out.\u201d He said the teens had communicated using the online messaging platform Signal.<\/p>\n Killed in the attack<\/a> were Nadir Awad, 57, husband of a teacher at the mosque\u2019s school and a neighbor who ran to help after hearing gunshots; Mansour Kaziha, 78, a founder and caretaker at the mosque; and Amin Abdullah, 51, a security guard at the mosque.<\/p>\n When the teens pulled up and walked inside the facility, Abdullah<\/a> opened fire and engaged them in a gunbattle. He also alerted the school to go on lockdown \u2014 an action that authorities said saved lives. There were 140 people, most of them schoolchildren, at the site when the teens opened fire.<\/p>\n Abdullah got off a shot that struck and wounded Clark, O\u2019Neill said Monday, a detail not previously shared publicly.<\/p>\n After the attack at the mosque, the teens apparently headed south \u2014 not north toward the synagogue \u2014 and were found dead in their vehicle about a half-mile away from the mosque.<\/p>\n Imam Taha Hassane, the leader of the Islamic Center of San Diego, said law enforcement has stayed in touch with the mosque\u2019s leadership since the shooting without revealing details of its investigation. He said investigators have assured him that they are going after \u201canyone who was part of this terrorist attack\u201d and that he and the victims\u2019 families welcomed the news of Santiago\u2019s arrest Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t believe the shooters acted on their own,\u201d Hassane told the Union-Tribune. \u201cWe believe they were part of a network, a movement based on the ideology of White supremacy against immigrants, Muslims and refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n Hassane said he hopes investigators go \u201cas deep as possible to uncover the reality of what happened\u201d and why, exactly, the shooters targeted the Islamic Center of San Diego.<\/p>\n San Diego police are investigating the killings as a hate crime.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s news was the first mention that the teens had connected with anyone outside the region.<\/p>\n Mark Remily, special agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s San Diego field office, said in a statement that investigators, together with the FBI\u2019s Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Diego, conducted more than 100 interviews, served upward of 30 search warrants and reviewed more than 4 million messages as part of the probe into the rampage.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s announcement is the first arrest in the case. San Diego is also part of the investigation, and on Monday, Police Chief Scott Wahl said the arrest is \u201ca meaningful step toward justice for the three irreplaceable lives that were lost that day.\u201d<\/p>\n The manifesto that circulated online repeats tropes and rails against a cross-section of groups \u2014 including religious, ethnic and LGBTQ+ communities \u2014and cites neo-Nazi ideology. It praises mass shooters, and there are repeated references to a young man who opened fire at Chabad of Poway in 2019, killing one congregant and wounding three a month after he\u2019d set fire at an Escondido mosque.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SUT-L-Islamic-Center-Shooting-023_dd872a.jpg\")
The vehicle of the suspects in the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego is seen on Hatton Street. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Security](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SUT-L-mosque-arrest-005.jpg\")
Security guards stand in the front of the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday. (Luke Johnson \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Amin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SUT-L-Victims-Three_4aecdb.jpg\")
Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad were shot and killed in an attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18, 2026. (San Diego Police Department)<\/p>\n