An 18-year-old accused of opening fire at a San Diego mosque in May, leaving three people dead, "escaped" from the mental health institution where he was being treated the night before the attack, according to a lawsuit filed Aug. 31 in San Diego Superior Court by the teenager's parents.
The lawsuit, which seeks damages for negligent care of Caleb Vazquez, also claims staff at the facility, Park Mental Health Treatment Center of San Diego, were warned by the FBI a few days before the attack that Vazquez had been communicating with people on the dark web about school shootings and suicide.
The lawsuit, first reported by the Times of San Diego, contains previously unreported details about the shooting and the events leading up to it.
'Are you saying that he’s missing?'
On the morning
of May 18, the lawsuit alleges, a staff member at the mental health facility texted Vazquez’s mother asking if she knew where he was.
"Are you saying that he’s missing?" Vazquez’s mother, Liliana Vazquez, responded. "Yes," came the reply.
Caleb Vazquez’s parents immediately rushed to the facility where they had admitted their son in April because he was suffering from "Autism, OCD, Body dismorphia [sic], social anxiety and severe depression with psychotic episodes," the lawsuit states.
The teen's parents then spent "a couple of hours” driving around the area looking for their son, the lawsuit states, and attempted to speak with staff at the facility but were not able to do so. At about 11:50 a.m. local time, they left the facility and went home.
Eight minutes earlier, the attack on the San Diego Islamic Center began. Three people were killed in the shooting. Authorities said the two suspects later died by suicide in a nearby car.Attorney Norman M. Finkelstein, who is representing the Vazquez family, told USA TODAY that Caleb Vazquez had initially been held at a more secure facility than the one he left the night before the attack.
"Earlier, he was at a different facility where he was under lock and key," Finkelstein said. "Then they transferred him to this facility, where he wasn't. He had a curfew, but they did nothing to enforce that."
Mental health facility disputes lawsuit's claims
The lawsuit also alleges "recklessness, carelessness and negligence" by the staff at the institution.
"At all times herein mentioned, Defendants, and each of them, knew that their failure to satisfy the above described duties, and their failure to comply with all applicable legal obligations, would cause Decedent, CALEB VAZQUEZ to be at risk in terms of his health and welfare," the lawsuit states. "Thus, in breaching such duties and legal obligations, as alleged herein, Defendants, and each of their conduct was egregious in failing to avoid the perils to decedent, CALEB VAZQUEZ, while he was under their custodial care."
Chris Saldaña, an attorney representing Park Mental Health, said the lawsuit is riddled with factual errors. Park Mental Health is an outpatient treatment center that does not hold people in locked rooms, he said.
"It's not a prison," Saldaña said. "It cannot lock people up and doesn't."
Saldaña also claimed that Caleb Vazquez's mother was contacted by the FBI before the treatment center was ever notified by the bureau.
"I question the legitimacy of the legal claims that are set forth within the complaint," he said.
Teenage girl charged in attack
The lawsuit comes a day after prosecutors charged a 17-year-old girl from North Carolina as an adult after they said she live-streamed the shooting.
Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O'Neill announced that Sarah Lindsey Santiago of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was indicted by a grand jury on Aug. 31 on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy for allegedly helping plan the attack, which is being investigated as a hate crime.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mosque shooting suspect went missing from mental facility, suit claims
