A 17-year-old North Carolina girl was indicted on three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy for allegedly aiding two teenage gunmen who killed three people during a mass shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego in May 2026, prosecutors announced Monday.
The North Carolina Indictment and Aiding-and-Abetting Charges
Authorities in Forsyth County announced Monday that Sarah Lindsey Santiago, 17, faces three counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy. Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill detailed the charges at a news conference in Winston-Salem, noting that the teenager was arrested last week just before she was scheduled to begin the school year.
Although Santiago was in North Carolina during the attack, prosecutors assert she worked directly with the two teenage shooters beforehand. Under North Carolina’s aiding-and-abetting statutes, a person can be held just as culpable as if they had personally carried out the acts. Due to the terrorism-related nature of the crimes, she is being tried as an adult.
Digital Coordination and the Live-Streamed Attack
Investigators say the plot involved planning across encrypted digital spaces. According to prosecutors, Santiago agreed prior to the assault to record and disseminate a livestream of the carnage, publish the attackers’ white-supremacist manifesto, and supply patches bearing extremist symbols. She is accused of purchasing and mailing a Sonnenrad patch—a Nazi symbol—which one of the gunmen wore during the rampage.
On May 18, 2026, the two gunmen—identified as 18-year-old Caleb Vazquez and 17-year-old Cain Clark—stormed the Islamic Center of San Diego wearing GoPro helmets. O’Neill stated that three individuals watched the livestream in real time, including a female participant located in the Eastern time zone.
“The individual here, locally, was the person who was recording the livestream. She disseminated that information and she published their manifesto.”
Jim O’Neill, Forsyth County District Attorney, via Yahoo News
The Rampage at the Islamic Center and Interrupted Follow-Up Plans
The armed assault in San Diego’s Clairemont neighborhood left three men dead. The victims included Amin Abdullah, a 51-year-old security guard; Mansour Kaziha, a 78-year-old mosque founder and caretaker; and Nadir Awad, a 57-year-old neighbor and husband of a mosque school teacher who ran toward the gunfire to help.
Law enforcement officials credited Abdullah and other victims with preventing a far greater loss of life. Armed with his own firearm, Abdullah engaged the shooters and sustained injuries, which slowed their advance and initiated a lockdown that protected 140 children sheltering inside an adjoining Islamic school.
Rather than continuing their assault, Vazquez and Clark fled to a nearby vehicle and died by suicide. Prosecutors revealed that the mosque was only the first stop in a planned wave of violence.
“Their plan that day was to commit mass murders, not only at the mosque, but to follow-up at a local jewish temple… and finally at a predominantly African American high school there in town.”
Jim O’Neill, Forsyth County District Attorney, via NBC 7 San Diego and San Diego Union-Tribune
Extremist Networks and the Investigation
Federal and local law enforcement agencies launched an interstate investigation following the tragedy, conducting more than 100 interviews, serving upwards of 30 search warrants, and reviewing more than 4 million messages. Reid Davis, special agent in charge of the FBI Charlotte Field Office, emphasized that the investigation uncovered missed opportunities to halt the plot.
“When someone has credible knowledge that a crime is going to be planned or going to be committed, particularly an act of violence, the law requires you to come forward. The failure to do so must have consequences.”
Reid Davis, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Charlotte Field Office, via NBC 7 San Diego
O’Neill described the suspects as participants in an online extremist subculture operating on coded platforms like Signal. This digital echo chamber, officials noted, radicalized the teens, drawing explicit inspiration from the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter.
Community Response and Next Legal Steps
Defense attorney Alan Doorasamy Sr., representing Santiago, confirmed his hiring and stated that his client is innocent of all charges.
