The family of one of the suspects in a deadly shooting at a San Diego mosque this week said his exposure to hateful and extremist content online “contributed to his descent into radicalized ideologies and violent beliefs.”
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The Vazquez family apologized for the actions Caleb Vazquez is accused of, which they said there was no excuse for, and spoke out against online spaces that “normalize hatred” in the statement provided to NBC San Diego by the family’s attorney.
Vazquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, killed three people at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday before they died by suicide, authorities have said. Officials believe they met online.
Attempts to reach Clark’s immediate family have not been successful.
Authorities investigating their motives were trying to authenticate a lengthy document posted online that they may have written, law enforcement officials have said. The writings include anti-Islamic, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ views, Nazi iconography and references to accelerationism, a white supremacist ideology that promotes violence to hasten the formation of a white “ethnostate.”
The family said that Vazquez’s beliefs do not align with their own and that they “stand firmly against the ideology and actions that led to this tragedy.”
In the two-page statement, they apologized to the families of the three people who were killed, whom they thanked for preventing more deaths, and to a landscaper who was shot at.
“Our son was on the autism spectrum, and it is painfully clear to us now that he struggled not only with accepting parts of his own identity but also grew to resent them,” the family said.
They also said he may have been radicalized online.
“We 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,” the statement said. “While there is no excuse for his actions, we have come to recognize how dangerous online spaces are that normalize hatred.”
Vazquez’s family said they took measures to help him through what they described as “his mental instability” and encouraged him to seek help, which they said he did voluntarily.
They condemned hateful and extremist beliefs and addressed people who may share similar ideologies, encouraging them to seek help.
“To anyone struggling with violent thoughts, anger, radicalization, or hatred toward others, please seek help before more innocent lives are destroyed,” the statement said.
The three people killed in the shooting were Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad. No one in the building, where as many as 140 children were sheltering, was injured.
Authorities said Abdullah, a security guard at the mosque, exchanged gunfire with the shooters. After he was shot, Abdullah used his radio to implement a lockdown protocol, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl has said. The gunmen ultimately saw Kaziha and Awad in the parking lot outside and fatally shot them, Wahl said.
The family said that while they are grieving as parents, they are heartbroken for the victims’ families and the affected community.
“We can only pray that his actions and words do not inspire or incite further hatred or violence toward any community,” the statement said. “They were the actions of an immensely lost, troubled, and misguided soul, and we hope no other family or community ever has to endure this kind of tragedy again.”
