A 17-year-old North Carolina girl was charged with murder after she coordinated with gunmen to livestream a fatal shooting at a San Diego mosque this year, the authorities said Monday.
The girl, Sarah Santiago of Forsyth County, N.C., was arrested last week, and a grand jury indicted her on three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy on Monday, according to Jim O’Neill, the district attorney. She is being charged as an adult.
Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, killed three people at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18, an attack that was investigated as a hate crime and that heightened concerns about rising Islamophobia. Both were found dead inside a vehicle that contained anti-Islamic writings after the shooting.
Ms. Santiago recorded and shared the livestream video of the shooting, which was filmed on GoPro cameras attached to helmets that the gunmen wore, Mr. O’Neill said. She also published statements written by the attackers, he said.
Mr. O’Neill said in an interview that Ms. Santiago, who was enrolled in a public school in Forsyth County, knew the two gunmen who carried out the attack through their communications online. They never met in person. He said Ms. Santiago had coordinated the livestream from Forsyth County, which includes the city of Winston-Salem, about 100 miles west of Raleigh.
The New York Times does not routinely identify minors but is identifying Ms. Santiago because of the nature of the alleged crime and because she is being charged as an adult.
The trio communicated on an online platform that served as “an echo chamber of hate,” the district attorney said. Their plan, he added, was to record their violent act and have Ms. Santiago disseminate it so that they would be “famous forever.”
Ahead of the attack, Ms. Santiago also purchased and sent Mr. Vazquez a patch containing a Nazi symbol that he wore during the shooting, according to court documents.
Ms. Santiago was one of three people who watched the livestream of the attack, Mr. O’Neill said. Previously, the authorities had not identified her and had known only that she was a woman “living in the Eastern time zone,” he said.
Alan Doorasamy, a lawyer representing Ms. Santiago, said in a statement on Monday that she was innocent of all charges.
“This case is a major tragedy for the victims, their families, communities and America at large,” Mr. Doorasamy said. “This incident touches on major issues in the U.S., including youth and social media and mental health.”
“The world will soon know the facts that caused this major tragedy,” he added.
The Forsyth County district attorney’s office acknowledged that it was wading into unusual legal territory in its prosecution of Ms. Santiago.
Mr. O’Neill and his prosecutors are essentially testing whether a person who they claim assisted in killings that occurred in one state can be found guilty of murder in a different state.
In other words, prosecutors agree that Ms. Santiago was not at the scene of the shooting in California, but they argue her actions in North Carolina contributed to those killings and warrant murder charges.
“She ran with the pack — she shared in the kill,” Mr. O’Neill said, explaining the charges.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Ms. Santiago faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Because of her age, she would be eligible for a parole hearing after 25 years.
In the interview, Mr. O’Neill said he was “horrified to know that these websites are accessible to young people who are just filled with hate, want to go out and commit mass murders and record their deeds.”
The victims were Amir Abdullah, a security guard at the mosque, Mansour Kaziha, a store manager at the mosque, and Nadir Awad, a neighbor and member of the mosque community.
Mr. Clark, Mr. Vazquez and Ms. Santiago had also conspired to attack the Kehilat Ariel Messianic Synagogue in San Diego and “African-American students at a public high school,” court documents state. The gunmen planned to execute all three attacks on the same day, Mr. O’Neill said Monday.
The Islamic Center of San Diego is the largest mosque in San Diego County and draws attendees from all over the world. Its grounds also include a school. The center’s imam, Taha Hassane, could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
A recent uptick in threats and violence against U.S. religious institutions, driven in part by conflict in the Middle East, has prompted mosques, synagogues and churches nationwide to increase security measures.
Ms. Santiago’s indictment is “an important step” toward ensuring that anyone involved in the attack is held accountable, Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement on Monday.
“American Muslims should never have to fear that attending a mosque, sending their children to Islamic school or gathering with their community could make them targets of violence,” Mr. Awad said.