A 17-year-old girl in North Carolina was indicted Monday on murder charges for allegedly helping to live-stream and record a deadly attack on a California mosque this spring, authorities said.
The defendant, Sarah Santiago, was arrested last week and indicted on Monday by a grand jury, according to Jim O’Neill, the district attorney for Forsyth County in North Carolina. He emphasized that those who “aid and abet” a crime — even from afar — are also guilty.
Two other teenagers opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18, killing three people and live-streaming the violence via their GoPro helmets, authorities said. Those teenagers — 17-year-old Cain Clark and 18-year-old Caleb Vazquez — killed themselves after the assault, officials said.
Authorities have previously said the shooters met online and shared a “broad hatred” of many races and religions. O’Neill said they had planned to commit additional murders at a Jewish temple and a predominantly African American high school as well.
“There exists in our world an underground subculture. It’s an echo chamber of intense hate against different cultures and religions,” the district attorney said at a Monday news conference, later appealing to parents to “know what our children are watching.”
O’Neill, the district attorney, said that initially authorities only knew that a woman living in the Eastern time zone had watched the live stream. But last week, he said, the Forsyth County Sheriff got in contact with more information. The shooters wanted “their carnage and destruction recorded, livestreamed and disseminated out,” O’Neill said, and the defendant recorded the live stream and published their manifesto.
Authorities in North Carolina were immediately alarmed, they said, particularly because Santiago attends the local school system. They moved to arrest her before the indictment came back.
“The thought of her going back to school, or with the weekend approaching, holy days approaching — we didn’t know what she was capable of,” O’Neill told reporters.
Santiago, who is from Winston-Salem, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday. Her attorney Alan Doorasamy said his client was “innocent of all these charges.”
In addition to helping plan the attack, the indictment says, Santiago purchased a Sonnenrad patch — a symbol used by Nazis and white supremacists — for Vasquez to wear.
Brady Dennis contributed to this report.
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