{"id":455141,"date":"2026-09-06T05:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T05:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455141\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T05:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T05:24:21","slug":"islamic-center-shooters-parents-suing-mental-health-provider-for-negligence-wrongful-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455141\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamic Center shooter\u2019s parents suing mental health provider for negligence, wrongful death"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of one of the gunmen in the deadly Islamic Center of San Diego shooting <\/a>is suing a mental health facility for negligence and wrongful death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was preventable. This should have never occurred,\u201d said Norm Finkelstein, attorney for the family.<\/p>\n

According to the civil suit filed Aug. 31, the family of Caleb Vazquez, 18, said Park Mental Health, where he was an inpatient, missed several red flags, leading to his death and the deaths of three people at the Islamic Center.<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know needs help, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting the number 988.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re devastated by this whole thing,\u201d Finkelstein said. \u201cAnd they feel horrible for the shooting victims as well as for their son. I mean, it’s just tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, the 18-year-old was undergoing treatment at a Park Mental Health residential facility for \u201cautism, OCD, body dysmorphia, social anxiety and severe depression with psychotic episodes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patients are allowed to leave during the day but must return by curfew. Vazquez did not. He went missing the night before the shooting.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

People visit a memorial to Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad at the Islamic Center of San Diego Thursday, May 21, 2026.<\/p>\n

The suit alleges that four days before the shooting, his mother received a call from the FBI. The FBI told the mother her son was on the dark web<\/a> chatting about suicide and school shootings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was going on the dark web and looking for people of similar mindset to get involved in shootings of mosques, synagogues, schools,\u201d Finkelstein said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when she contacted her son\u2019s therapist as well as Park Mental Health, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiguring that they were going to take steps to protect him. He was doing this while he was there, while he was living at the facility,\u201d Finkelstein said. \u201cApparently, they let him keep his phone and the next thing that happened was the shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, the teenager walked out of the residential facility in Normal Heights on May 17, the night before the shooting and was apparently picked up by the other gunman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the facility called the mom in the morning and said, \u2018Have you seen him?\u2019\u201d Finkelstein said. \u201cAnd she says, \u2018What do you mean? You don’t know where he is?\u2019 And they said, \u2018No.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Park Mental Health said many of the claims in the lawsuit are incorrect or counterfactual.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is understandable that his parents might seek to blame someone in their time of loss, this lawsuit is misguided in that neither Park nor its employees are responsible for Mr. Vazquez’s actions,\u201d the statement read. \u201cOnly he and his coconspirator bear responsibility for their conduct and, ultimately, his death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finkelstein said the family is seeking monetary damages because the facility failed to notify authorities as soon as their patient went missing. He was identified as a threat by the FBI, Finkelstein said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the mom called them and advised them what was going on with him. That is a red flag,\u201d he said. \u201cThey needed to do something, and they just failed him and \u2026 unfortunately, they failed the folks at the mosque as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed on the same day that authorities announced the arrest and indictment of a 17-year-old North Carolina teenager <\/a>in connection with the shooting. Finklestein said that was a coincidence. Authorities haven\u2019t told Vazquez\u2019 parents anything about the case as the investigation is still ongoing, he said.<\/p>\n

Updated: September 4, 2026 at 5:29 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: In line with industry best practices, KPBS does not typically name the perpetrators of mass shootings to avoid glorifying their actions or inspiring copycats. KPBS has decided to name him in its ongoing coverage of the case and public proceedings. We believe identifying him is warranted by the circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of one of the gunmen in the deadly Islamic Center of San Diego shooting is suing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-455141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","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\/455141","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=455141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}