Behavior of teen in San Diego mosque shooting led police to seize family’s 26 guns last year

One of the teenagers who killed three people at a San Diego mosque was flagged to law enforcement last year for exhibiting alarming behavior and idolizing Nazis, prompting police to confiscate his father’s guns, according to court records.

The officers who conducted a welfare check at the home of Caleb Vazquez wrote that he was “involved in suspicious behavior idolizing nazis and mass shooters,” and obtained a court order on Jan. 29, 2025, to remove 26 guns under a 2014 California law allowing the confiscation of firearms from people considered dangerous.

Vazquez’s father initially denied police entry into his home when they requested to see how he was storing his weapons.

Vazquez’s parents had voluntarily removed the guns from the house and placed them in a secure storage facility days earlier, according to an affidavit signed by Marco Vazquez, the father.

Authorities have said Vazquez, 18, met Cain Clark, 17, online, where they both were radicalized. Police haven’t shared more details about how they knew each other, or specified whose weapons were used in the shooting.

Cain Clark’s mother told law enforcement that weapons were missing from her home on Monday, kicking off an hourslong search for the teens before they committed the shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego and then killed themselves, police say.

In writings by Vazquez and Clark that expressed white supremacist views, Vazquez wrote of having “some mental health issues” and being rejected by women. They suggest both teenagers idolized previous shooters who have died while carrying out mass shootings. The writings expressed hatred toward Jewish people, Muslims, Black people and a range of other groups.