Families of Islamic Center victims sue San Diego Unified for refusing to turn over records on teen shooter

The family members of the three people shot and killed by two radicalized teens at the Islamic Center of San Diego want to know what warning signs, if any, the San Diego Unified School District may have seen leading up to the shooting.

The families say the school district is unwilling to provide any records, claiming the documents are confidential.

The family members of Amin Abdullah, Nadir Awad and Mansour Kaziha, who were shot and killed on May 18 by 17-year-old Cain Clark and 18-year-old Caleb Vazquez, are now asking a San Diego Superior Court Judge to force the district’s hand.

In a newly filed writ of mandate, obtained by Times of San Diego, attorneys for the family members say they submitted a request for public records on July 10, asking for any warning, threat assessment, or complaint that mentioned Clark while he was a student at James Madison High and later at iHigh Virtual Academy.

Specifically, the attorneys wanted to know if the district or law enforcement were aware of Clark’s extremist views leading up to the shooting. They also want to know if the district had ever contacted the San Diego Police Department, the FBI, or any other law enforcement agency to report unusual behavior.

The families’ attorneys also made a request to view any records exchanged with the FBI and/or the police department following the incident.

Six days after the public records request, San Diego Unified attorney Jeffrey Day rejected portions of it, citing privacy concerns.

In a back-and-forth between attorneys, Day suggested modifying the request by deleting any mention of Clark’s name and also narrowing their request to focus on the keywords, “Islamic Center of San Diego shooting.”

In an email explaining their position, San Diego Unified’s attorney said mentioning Clark’s name automatically triggers student privacy protections.

On Tuesday, the attorneys for the family decided to file their petition against the district.

“Our clients lost loved ones in the Islamic Center of San Diego shooting, and they are asking the court to intervene because San Diego Unified School District has refused even to search (emphasis theirs) for records showing what it knew about the shooter, a District student,” said an attorney for the family, Osama Alkhawaja, in a statement to Times of San Diego.

San Diego Unified spokesperson James Canning said the district could not comment on the petition due to pending litigation.

The petition comes as family members of the victims, as well as the parents of Vazquez, continue to search for answers.

On Sept.1, as first reported by Times of San Diego, Vazquez’s parents sued the mental health provider that was treating their son, alleging they failed to monitor Vazquez in the hours before the shooting, after he went missing from a Normal Heights treatment home.

With the newly filed writ of mandate, the search for answers as to how two young San Diego County teens were radicalized online and managed to obtain guns and ammunition continues.