North Carolina Teen Charged in Islamic Center Shooting
A teenager from North Carolina has been charged in connection with the tragic attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego that resulted in three fatalities back in May.
Seventeen-year-old Sarah Lindsey Santiago is facing four charges, including allegations that she intended to livestream the horrific event and disseminate the shooters’ manifesto, as detailed in the indictment.
During a press conference on Monday, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill shared that the attackers wore “GoPro helmets,” and noted that Santiago was one of three individuals who were watching the livestream at the time. Unfortunately, he didn’t elaborate on the roles of the other two viewers.
Santiago was taken into custody last week, and O’Neill expressed apprehension regarding her return to school as the new academic year begins.
“We looked at the carnage that had occurred in California,” O’Neill remarked. “And the thought of her going back to school…we wondered about her potential actions.”
A Grand Jury formally charged Santiago on Monday with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
On May 18th, two gunmen, aged 17 and 18, killed three people at the Islamic Center—including Amin Abdullah, Nadir Awad, and Mansour Kaziha.
According to San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl, Abdullah, the security guard, immediately responded to the shooters
and initiated lockdown procedures, successfully protecting 140 children who were inside the mosque, merely 15 feet away from danger.
Awad and Kaziha, who were outside the center at the time, attracted the shooters’ attention before being tragically cornered, as per the police chief’s account.
“I want to be very clear: All three of the victims did not die in vain,” Wahl emphasized. “Their actions undeniably prevented further tragedy.”
Authorities indicated that the gunmen took their own lives following the attack.
O’Neill later revealed that the shooters had intended to target a Jewish temple and a predominantly Black high school on the same day.
“From their manifesto, it seemed they harbored hatred for everyone, regardless of race, politics, religion, or ethnicity,” O’Neill stated.
He emphasized the significance of this incident as it marks the first ideologically-motivated deadly attack on a mosque in the U.S. in this century, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which has documented numerous assaults and plots against Muslim establishments since 1994.
“According to the CSIS, this attack that claimed three innocent lives in San Diego appears to be the first ideologically-motivated assault on a mosque in a hundred years,” O’Neill remarked.
