One of the teenage gunmen responsible for the deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego went to school dressed like notorious killers, court documents obtained by Scripps News Group station in San Diego show.
Caleb Vazquez first landed on law enforcement's radar after two of his friends reported concerns to the assistant principal at High Tech High in Chula Vista when he started dressing up as various serial killers, including some who had committed mass shootings.
That's according to a request for a gun violence restraining order from a detective with the Chula Vista Police Department last January.
The teen also came to class in 2024 dressed as Dexter, the fictional TV character who lives a double life as a blood splatter expert and serial killer.
“He also admitted to dressing up similarly to the recent health care CEO shooter,” Chula Vista Det. Nicholas How wrote in a court document. The detective was referencing Luigi Mangione, who’s accused of killing the late UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The list of notorious killers the teen became obsessed with included Patrick Crusius, who murdered 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 and Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist who killed 77 people in 2011 gun and bomb attacks.
Vazquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, are accused of shooting three people at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18 before dying by suicide.
RELATED STORY | 3 killed in shooting at Islamic Center of San Diego; 2 suspects dead
Court documents show Chula Vista police did a welfare check last January after Vazquez, who was 17 years old at the time, told his friend not to attend school the next day.
When officers arrived at the home, Vazquez’s father refused to let them speak to his son alone and would not allow police to verify that his firearms were secured properly.
“The father’s lack of cooperation hindered officers’ ability to fully assess and evaluate the reported concerns and ensure the safety of all parties involved,” the detective alleged in a court document.
RELATED STORY | Security guard hailed as hero after deadly mosque shooting in San Diego
In another incident that alarmed school leaders, Vazquez “was observed punching a tree and exhibiting irrational behavior.” In another incident, he said he looked like someone in a concentration camp after shaving his head and pointed a banana at people like a gun.
Despite the outbursts, the assistant principal told police Vazquez had never been suspended.
The educator added that he was surprised to learn Vazquez claimed he was being bullied by a transgender student named Kai/Vivica, noting no students by those names attended the small campus.
The assistant principal also told police that Vazquez talked about wanting to join the military because he “wants to experience the risk of potentially dying.”
The day after the welfare check in 2025, school resource officers and an emergency psychiatric response team met with Vazquez. He told the team he was becoming increasingly infatuated with mass shootings and World War II.
The teen told the resources officers he had been doing a lot of research on the dark web, so it couldn’t be traced back to him.
Vazquez was placed on a 72-hour mental health hold, and police successfully obtained a temporary gun violence restraining order against him.
After his son was served, Marco Vazquez told police that he and his wife removed more than two dozen guns, ammunition, and knives from their home and put them into storage.
The father was then served with a gun violence restraining order, which Superior Court Judge Enrique Camarena dismissed two weeks later.
