Alleged San Diego Gunman Had Violent Obsessions

Police were so unsettled by one of the teens later accused in the deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego that they took his guns away more than a year before the attack. Court records show Chula Vista police secured a gun violence restraining order against then-high school student Caleb Vazquez in January 2025 after classmates and staff reported he idolized mass shooters, talked about a “day of retribution,” and came to school dressed as mass murderers and the TV serial killer Dexter, per NBC News and KGTV. The school had shared social media posts in which Vazquez praised killers, including those behind a 2011 attack in Norway and a 2019 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, NBC reports.

Vazquez allegedly admitted an infatuation with mass killings and an idolization of Adolf Hitler and was put on a 72-hour psychiatric hold. His father—initially uncooperative, according to a police affidavit—removed 26 weapons from the home and arranged for therapy before the restraining order was dismissed that March. Just over a year later, police say Vazquez, 18, and a 17-year-old he’d met online killed three people at the mosque—security guard Amin Abdullah, caretaker Mansour Kaziha, and neighbor Nadir Awad—before wounding a landscaper and dying by suicide. FBI officials say writings left behind were steeped in extremist hatred. In the aftermath, community members are questioning how so many warnings failed to prevent the attack and calling for stronger, earlier interventions on mental health and homicidal ideation.