The parents of a California teenager who fatally shot three people at a mosque with an accomplice have filed a lawsuit against the mental health facility where he had been receiving treatment.
Caleb Vazquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, carried out the deadly attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18, killing a security guard and two members of the community.
Authorities later found both teenagers dead inside a car. Investigators said Clark shot Vazquez in the head before turning the gun on himself.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in San Diego County Superior Court, Vazquez’s parents, Lilliana and Marco Vazquez, said their son had struggled with serious mental illness.
The complaint accuses Park Mental Health Treatment of San Diego, where Vazquez was treated, of negligence and medical malpractice that the family says contributed to his death, according to a civil complaint reviewed by Our News Outlet.
According to the lawsuit, Vazquez was taken to a hospital in January 2025 after a classmate reported that he had said he wanted to carry out a school shooting. The filing also alleges that Vazquez had posted suicidal thoughts on social media.
He was discharged from the hospital after three days, but was later admitted to Park Mental Health in April after being diagnosed with autism, OCD, body dysmorphia, social anxiety and severe depression with psychotic episodes, the lawsuit states.
Four days before the mosque shooting, on May 14, Vazquez’s mother was contacted by the FBI and told that her son had been communicating with people on the dark web about school shootings and suicide, according to the lawsuit.
Caleb Vazquez (left), 18, and Cain Clark, 17, shot three people to death at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18. Clark then shot Vazquez in the head before turning the gun on himself
Vazquez’s parents have accused the mental health facility that was treating their son, Park Mental Health, of causing his death. The mosque where Vazquez and Clark shot three people is pictured
The mom, Lilliana, immediately reached out to Park Mental Health and her son’s therapist, Mikayla Weathers, but did not hear back until the next morning, according to the lawsuit.
The therapist, who was also named as a defendant in the civil complaint, set up a conversation with the mother on May 15 and said she had been contacted by the FBI as well, the lawsuit said.
Three days later, on the morning of the shooting, Weathers texted Vazquez’s mother asking, ‘Do you have any idea where Caleb could be?’ according to the lawsuit.
‘Are you saying that he’s missing?’ Lilliana replied before Weathers wrote back, ‘Yes,’ the lawsuit said.
Vazquez’s parents immediately hopped in their car and drove to the Park Mental Health housing where their son had been living, the lawsuit said.
They then allegedly spoke with the house manager, who showed them a surveillance video of Vazquez pacing back and forth the prior evening while on the phone with someone before leaving at 8.24pm, according to the lawsuit.
The parents drove around for hours looking for their son but could not find him.
They then went to see his therapist, but she would not meet with them, and when Lilliana asked why no one had told her Vazquez had gone missing the night before, ‘no one responded,’ the lawsuit said.
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Vazquez’s parents allege that Park Mental Health allowed him to leave and go missing the night before the shooting. The police response is pictured
Images from the scene showed a red gasoline canister with a Nazi SS sticker on it and a shotgun next to the BMW X1 where the shooters were found dead. Vazquez’s parents said they had searched for their son for hours that morning
They drove home shortly before noon. Later that day, they would learn the horrific news that Vazquez and Clark had fatally shot three people before Clark also shot his accomplice then turned the gun on himself.
The lawsuit alleges that Park Mental Health and the other defendants engaged in ‘negligent failure to take steps to protect… Vazquez from his own self destructive actions in a timely manner,’ especially after having just been contacted by the FBI.
It also claims that the defendants failed in their standards of care by failing to put Vazquez in a ‘locked and secure facility… and otherwise prevent him from escaping their custodial care,’ after learning of his online conduct.
The civil complaint alleged four causes of action including negligence, dependent adult abuse or neglect, wrongful death and medical malpractice.
Vazquez’s parents are seeking punitive and other damages in an amount to be determined through court proceedings.
Chris Saldana, an attorney for Park Mental Health, told NBC San Diego that his client engaged in no wrongdoing and denied the lawsuit’s allegations.
Members of the Muslim community in San Diego reacted after the horror shooting. Vazquez’s parents said that Park Mental Health should have kept him confined
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‘Caleb was at a house not represented as a secure facility. There was no court ordered confinement,’ the lawyer told the outlet.
‘The lawsuit makes many incorrect factual assertions,’ Saldana added.
Park Mental Health has not yet filed a formal response to the lawsuit. It has a month to do so.
Our News Outlet has reached out to Park Mental Health for further comment.
