A 17-year-old girl in North Carolina has been charged with three counts of murder over her alleged involvement in a deadly attack at a mosque in San Diego, California.
The teenager, identified in court records as Sarah Lindsey Santiago, was indicted by a grand jury on Monday and will face the charges as an adult. Prosecutors accuse her of helping the attackers before and during the 18 May shooting, despite not being physically present at the mosque.
According to the indictment, Santiago allegedly agreed to record and distribute a livestream of the attack and later publish writings produced by the two gunmen. Prosecutors also allege that she sent one of the attackers a patch bearing a white-supremacist symbol.
The charges have drawn attention to the extent to which a person who is not physically present at a violent crime can be held legally responsible for the deaths that result from it.
Under North Carolina law, prosecutors say, someone who aids and abets a crime can face the same penalties as the person who directly commits it. Santiago has therefore been charged with three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy.
She was arrested last week and is being held without bond.
At a news conference, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill said investigators believed Santiago had an active role in distributing material connected to the attack.
“The individual here, locally, was the person who was recording the livestream,” O’Neill said. “She disseminated that information and she published their manifesto.”
Santiago’s lawyer, Alan Doorasamy Sr., has rejected the allegations, saying his client is innocent.
“At this time I can confirm that my client is innocent of all these charges,” he told the Associated Press, adding that he had not yet received evidence from law enforcement.
Three people were killed
The charges stem from the attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego on 18 May, when two teenage gunmen, Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, opened fire at the mosque.
Three people were killed: mosque security guard Amin Abdullah and worshippers Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad.
Authorities said Abdullah confronted the attackers and helped initiate a lockdown, actions that allowed about 140 children who were nearby to be protected from the gunfire. The two attackers later died by suicide in a vehicle close to the mosque.
Investigators say the attack was influenced by white-supremacist and other extremist material circulating online. The writings attributed to the attackers reportedly referenced the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks in New Zealand.
Prosecutors have also said the San Diego shooting was not necessarily intended to be the final attack. Investigators believe the gunmen had discussed attacking a Jewish temple and a predominantly Black high school afterwards. Those attacks did not occur.
Online activity at centre of investigation
The case has put renewed attention on the role of online networks in facilitating or amplifying violent extremism.
Authorities said three people watched the initial livestream of the San Diego attack. Investigators have not publicly established whether the other two viewers will face charges.
Prosecutors allege that Santiago’s involvement went beyond simply watching the violence. They say she had agreed beforehand to help record and distribute the attack and release the attackers’ manifesto.
The district attorney described the online environment surrounding the suspects as a network in which young people could encounter and reinforce extremist ideas.
The case could therefore become significant beyond the individual charges, particularly as authorities increasingly investigate whether online assistance, coordination and distribution of extremist material can amount to active participation in violent crimes.
For Santiago, however, the allegations remain unproven. Her indictment marks the beginning of the criminal case, and prosecutors will have to establish the alleged connection between her actions and the killings in court.
Source: BBC | Reuters | Associated Press
