Three Men Died Protecting a Mosque. A Teen Is Charged With Streaming Their Killing.
On Aug. 31, prosecutors in North Carolina charged a 17-year-old with three counts of murder and conspiracy, saying she live-streamed the May 18 attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, published the gunmen’s white-supremacist manifesto and mailed one of them a hate-symbol patch to wear. Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad were killed as they drew fire from two attackers and helped shield 140 children inside; the gunmen, who cited the 2019 Christchurch massacre, later died by suicide.
A 17-year-old in North Carolina has been charged with murder over a mass shooting she was not physically present for, after prosecutors said she live-streamed an attack on a San Diego mosque and helped spread the gunmen’s white-supremacist writings. Sarah Lindsey Santiago, of Winston-Salem, was indicted by a grand jury on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy and will be prosecuted as an adult, CNN and The Washington Post reported on Aug. 31.
Charged for the broadcast, not the trigger
Santiago is accused of agreeing to live-stream the May 18 attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, distribute the recording publicly and then release a manifesto written by the attackers to justify the killings, NBC News reported. Prosecutors said she also bought a patch bearing a white-supremacist symbol — a Sonnenrad, or Black Sun — and mailed it to one of the gunmen, who wore it during the shooting, according to CNN. The charges were announced by Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill, and if convicted Santiago faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, PBS reported.
An attack that killed three, and shielded 140 children
The gunmen — Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18 — opened fire outside the Islamic Center of San Diego, the city’s largest mosque, on May 18, killing three men before dying by suicide nearby, NBC News reported. Amin Abdullah, a 51-year-old security guard, exchanged gunfire with the attackers and followed lockdown protocols that slowed them, while Mansour Kaziha, the 78-year-old caretaker, and Nader Awad, a 57-year-old worshiper who lived across the street, drew the gunmen toward a parking lot, Al Jazeera reported. San Diego’s police chief, Scott Wahl, said the three men’s actions likely helped save 140 children inside a school at the site, according to Al Jazeera.
A manifesto modeled on Christchurch
A racist manifesto attributed to the attackers was found online, and investigators are treating the massacre as a hate crime, NBC News reported. The document cited the 2019 attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand — in which a gunman killed 51 worshippers and live-streamed the assault on Facebook — as a model, CNN reported. The prosecution’s case rests on that design: the indictment charges Santiago not with pulling a trigger, but with the roles that gave the attack an audience — the live feed, the manifesto and the plan to publish it, The Washington Post reported.
What comes next
Santiago, who was arrested in North Carolina, is being prosecuted as an adult, CNN reported. The two gunmen died before they could face charges, leaving the alleged remote participant among the few people who can now be held to account for the killings, NBC News reported. The case tests how the law treats the people who turn an atrocity into content — the ones who film it, package the ideology behind it and send it out to reach the next attacker.