One of the teenagers who killed three people at a San Diego mosque this week had been flagged to law enforcement months earlier for behavior that court records describe as alarming and linked to Nazi and mass-shooter idolization, according to records made public in connection with the case. Police later obtained a court order to remove dozens of guns from the teen’s home under a California law aimed at confiscating firearms from people deemed dangerous.
The Associated Press reported that officers who carried out a welfare check wrote that Caleb Vazquez was “involved in suspicious behavior idolizing nazis and mass shooters,” and sought authority to seize weapons. The court granted that request on Jan. 29, 2025, under a 2014 California law that allows confiscation of firearms from people considered dangerous.
Vazquez’s father initially denied police entry when officers requested to see how the guns were being stored, the report said. The filings describe that the parents had voluntarily moved the guns out of the house and into secure storage days before the court order, according to an affidavit signed by Marco Vazquez.
Authorities have said that Caleb Vazquez, 18, met Cain Clark, 17, online and that both were radicalized, but police have not said what additional details were used to identify how they knew each other or which person’s weapons were used in the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego. Police also said they have continued to investigate the circumstances around the hours leading up to the attack.
On Monday, investigators began searching for the teens after Clark’s mother reported that weapons were missing from her home, police said. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said earlier that she told officers her son was suicidal, had run away, was dressed in camouflage, and had taken multiple weapons from the home.
As officers searched, authorities also interviewed Clark’s mother about potential locations where the teens might be, according to the report. Investigators later said the teens were found after they began the shooting at the mosque and then killed themselves.
Court filings also describe actions taken by Vazquez after his family was involved in proceedings that included concerns about his mental health. The report said the filings show Vazquez decided to “secure all sharp knives in the home,” and that firearms previously kept in a secure gun safe were moved to outside storage.
The affidavit signed by Marco Vazquez also referenced unspecified serious allegations against his son and described that Caleb Vazquez had been previously committed to an involuntary psychiatric hospitalization, the report said. Authorities did not specify what he was admitted for, and the report noted that the filings were first reported by The New York Times.
Vazquez’s family said in a statement released Thursday that he was on the autism spectrum and had grown to resent parts of his identity, though they did not specify which parts were challenging, according to the AP. In the statement, released through their attorney Colin Rudolph, the family said: “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 report said Vazquez’s family also described trying to get him help, including encouraging him to seek help and saying he spent time in rehabilitation centers. It also said Vazquez’s parents did not immediately respond to calls for comment from the Associated Press, and an attorney who represented Vazquez’s parents when their guns were confiscated also did not immediately respond.
In writings attributed in the report to Vazquez and Clark that expressed white supremacist views, the teens wrote about having “some mental health issues” and being rejected by women, according to the Associated Press report. The writings described hatred toward multiple groups, including Jewish people, Muslims and Black people, the report said.
The AP report also cited a court statement from 2025 in which Vazquez’s father said his family made “a concerted effort to steer Caleb Vazquez back onto the right track.” The statement said that when the family locked away weapons, it was communicating with his school, monitoring his social media presence, and that he was in therapy twice a week. “We observe all of his online activities, who he talks to, what he talks about, and who he is friends with,” Marco Vazquez wrote, emphasizing that he did not support his son’s ideology.
Experts cited in the report said de-radicalizing people can be increasingly difficult as online content makes ideology harder to interpret. Samira Benz of the Violence Prevention Network, which conducts interventions when people are drawn into violent extremism, said the work has become more complicated as the internet blurs ideologies and creates niche, meme-based languages that can be fleeting and hard to decipher.
“Even if a parent is looking at the phone of their child, they don’t necessarily see something bad is going on,” Benz said, according to the report.
By reporting on the gun-confiscation steps and the subsequent search for the teens, the case also highlighted the challenges facing families and authorities when radicalization develops in ways that are difficult to recognize in time, even after court-ordered firearm removal.