“Earlier, he was at a different facility where he was under lock and key,” attorney Norman M. Finkelstein said. “Then they transferred him to this facility, where he wasn’t. He had a curfew, but they did nothing to enforce that.”
A recently-filed lawsuit claims that the 18-year-old accused of opening fire on worshipers at a San Diego-area mosque had “escaped” from a mental health institution a night before the May 2026 mass shooting.
According to USA Today, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the teenage suspect’s parents.
In court filings, the parents of 18-year-old Caleb Vazquez claim that the facility, Park Mental Health Treatment Center of San Diego, received an explicit warning from the FBI about Vazquez’s imminent plans for a violent attack. Federal agents allegedly told staff that they had identified the teenager as a participant in “dark web” conversations related to school shootings and suicide.
[note: the Times of San Diego indicates that FBI shared its warning with Vazquez’s parents, but implies that the message was, at some point, passed on to the facility]
Vazquez was, at the time, undergoing treatment for a range of diagnoses, including autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, body dysmorphia, social anxiety, severe depression, and psychotic episodes.
The lawsuit claims that, on the morning of May 18, 2026, a staff member at the facility sent a text message to Vazquez’s mother, asking if she knew where son had gone.
“Are you saying he’s missing?” wrote Vazquez’s mother, Liliana Vazquez. “Yes,” a staff member replied.
Vazquez’s parents quickly drove to the facility, then spent “a couple of hours” driving around the immediate area in search of their son. They also attempted to speak with staff but were unable to do so. Shortly before noon, at 11:50am, they left the facility and went home. They did not know that, eight minutes earlier, Vazquez had opened fire on worshipers at the San Diego Islamic Center. Three people were killed in the shooting; the two suspects, including Vazquez, committed suicide in a nearby vehicle.
An attorney representing the Vazquez family said Caleb had initially been held at a secure treatment center before being transferred to another facility.
“Earlier, he was at a different facility where he was under lock and key,” attorney Norman M. Finkelstein said. “Then they transferred him to this facility, where he wasn’t. He had a curfew, but they did nothing to enforce that.”
The lawsuit accuses Park Mental Health of “recklessness, carelessness and negligence.”
“At all times herein mentioned, Defendants, 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 alleges. “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, told USA Today that the lawsuit is inherently flawed. Park Mental Health, he said, is an outpatient treatment center—it has neither the right nor the ability to confine patients indefinitely and against their will.
“Caleb was at a house not represented as a secure facility,” Saldaña said. “There was no court-ordered confinement.”
“It is not a prison,” he said. “It cannot lock people up and doesn’t.”
Saldaña also said that Vazquez’s mother was contacted by the FBI before the treatment center.
“I question the legitimacy of the legal claims that are set forth within the complaint,” he said.
Sources
Mosque shooter’s parents sue mental health organization after Islamic Center killings
Mosque shooting suspect went missing from mental facility, suit claims
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