North Carolina teen indicted for aiding San Diego mosque shooting
A 17-year-old from North Carolina was indicted on murder and conspiracy charges for allegedly assisting the teenage gunmen who killed three people at the Islamic Center of San Diego in May.
A 17-year-old North Carolina resident, Sarah Lindsay Santiago, was indicted on three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy in Forsyth County for allegedly helping two teenage shooters record and distribute a livestream of the May 18 attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego. Prosecutors say she provided the attackers with the patches they wore and posted their manifesto online, leading to her being tried as an adult because of the terrorism-related nature of the case.
District Attorney Jim O'Neill said Santiago was arrested a week before the grand-jury indictment and that the indictment holds her accountable for actions that preceded the shooting. He noted that the two gunmen, dressed in camouflage, opened fire at the mosque before turning the guns on themselves in a nearby vehicle. Security guard Amin Abdullah, caretaker Mansour Kaziha and neighbor Nadir Awad were killed while trying to intervene, and O'Neill said their actions likely prevented further casualties at an adjacent Islamic school.
According to O'Neill, the shooters had also planned attacks on a local Jewish temple and a high school within 1.5 miles of the mosque, but they did not carry out those plans before committing suicide. FBI Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis emphasized that individuals with credible knowledge of planned violence have a legal duty to report it.
The indictment resulted from a joint investigation involving the Forsyth County District Attorney's Office, FBI terrorism task forces in Charlotte and San Diego, and police departments in San Diego and Winston-Salem. More than 30 search warrants were executed as part of the probe. Santiago is scheduled to appear in a North Carolina court on Sept. 10.