Mosque Gunman's Mother Sues Facility Over FBI Warning
Mosque Gunman's Mother Sues Facility Over FBI Warning
The News
The mother of San Diego mosque shooter Caleb Vazquez is suing the mental health facility where he was living, saying it ignored an FBI warning that her son was posting about school shootings on the dark web days before the attack.
The lawsuit, filed in a San Diego court on Aug. 31, accuses Park Mental Health Treatment of San Diego of failing to intervene despite signs that the 18-year-old posed an imminent threat to himself and others, according to the Associated Press.
Vazquez and another teenager, 17-year-old Cain Clark, killed three people at the mosque on May 18 before taking their own lives.
What the Lawsuit Alleges
Vazquez was living at the facility and being treated for a range of mental health conditions, including depression and psychotic episodes, the filing says. His mother says she relayed the FBI's warning to the facility three separate times in two days.
Timeline
Vazquez is flagged to law enforcement for alarming behavior and idolizing Nazis. Police confiscate 26 guns from his father under a 2014 California law that allows firearms to be taken from people considered dangerous.
Vazquez is hospitalized for roughly three days after telling a classmate he wanted to carry out a school shooting.
The FBI calls Vazquez's mother in the evening to warn that her son was making concerning comments about school shootings on the dark web. She says she immediately leaves a message for the treatment facility's staff.
She shares the FBI's warning again, first with her son's therapist and later that night with a program director.
Surveillance video later shows Vazquez leaving the property at 8 p.m.
Facility employees call Vazquez's mother in the morning to say he is missing. His parents are driving around looking for him when he and Clark kill three people at the mosque and then take their own lives.
The lawsuit is filed in San Diego court, the same day North Carolina authorities announce the indictment of a 17-year-old in connection with the shooting.
Reactions
Park Mental Health has rejected the claims. In a statement to radio station KPBS, the center said: "While 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."
"Only he and his coconspirator bear responsibility for their conduct and, ultimately, his death," the statement read.
The center did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Saturday afternoon, the AP reported. An FBI spokesman declined to comment Saturday, citing agency policy.
What's Next
The case now moves through San Diego court, where the central question will be what duty the facility owed after the warnings came in.
It is still unclear whether Vazquez was allowed to leave the property the night before the shooting or broke facility rules by doing so. Park Mental Health offers a range of treatment options — some advertising 24-hour surveillance, others providing more limited counseling.
Police have not said how Vazquez and Clark knew each other beyond meeting online, or whose weapons were used in the attack.
More
The filing lands amid a string of high-profile convictions of guardians who provided teenagers with weapons later used in mass shootings — cases that pushed the legal question of who else bears responsibility for a young shooter's actions.
Authorities have said Vazquez and Clark met online and that both were radicalized there.
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Should a treatment facility be held liable when a patient it was warned about commits a mass shooting?
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