A friend of the San Diego mosque shooters says one had sick fantasies of 'raping to death' an anime schoolgirl, and the other was 'closeted gay' and had had two spells in a mental hospital.
The Daily Mail has also unearthed a comic book written by one of the shooter's fathers about a teen who 'must kill all of his friends' – which has taken on a disturbing new light after 17-year-old Cain Clark and his accomplice, Caleb Vazquez, 18, murdered three at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, May 18.
A Kentucky-based 17-year-old who goes by 'Kaiser' told the Daily Mail he met the two shooters – who both died in the May 18 attack – in a TikTok group for neo-Nazis last February.
Kaiser shared video recordings of his text conversations with the murderous teens, and an online group chat where they and around a dozen others communicated.
'They was both really hateful towards almost any groups of people other than whites,' the friend said.
A security guard and two worshippers at the mosque were killed in the attack. Clark then shot Vazquez in the head before killing himself.
Until last week, Kaiser only knew them by their online usernames: 'Flecktarn Crusader' for Vazquez and 'SurfaceLevel' for Clark.
'They was lolicons, like young anime girl likers. And Fleck, one of the shooters, would talk about wanting to shoot up places like that. And said he was going to die before 20,' Kaiser told the Daily Mail.
Cain Clark, 17, (left) and Caleb Vazquez, 18, allegedly bonded online through neo-Nazi TikTok groups before carrying out the deadly attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18
The two teenage killers opened fire at the Islamic center, killing three, before being found in a car near the mosque with self-inflicted gunshot wounds
'Surface was very into shooters and would make edits of school shooters.
'We mostly just talked about Nazis, Hitler, and the hate for other groups of people.'
The Kentucky teen said Clark and Vazquez had been planning their attack for a year or more, telling him in June 2025 about their plans to shoot up a Jewish synagogue – though they ended up attacking a Muslim mosque on May 18.
The chilling claims, and mounting digital evidence, show the shooters were involved in online groups formed around hateful ideologies like Nazism, which radicalize young people and can lead to deadly acts.
FBI special agent in charge of the Bureau's San Diego Field Office, Mark Remily, said in a statement that he is 'determined to uncover all the facts associated with this incident' and that they are 'in the process of interviewing family and friends of the subjects'.
'We will leave no stone unturned,' he said.
According to Kaiser, Vazquez and Clark decided to meet up and plot their attack after discovering they lived near each other.
'Fleck and Surface met in the same gc [group chat] as me,' Kaiser said. 'They lived like an hour away from each other.
'But they met irl [in real life] around 3 months ago and went fishing.'
Kaiser told the Daily Mail he only knew the two teens by their online usernames: 'Flecktarn Crusader' for Vazquez and 'SurfaceLevel' for Clark
The suspects allegedly met in person earlier this year after first connecting through their extremist online communities and shared a photo from their outing
Vazquez posted a selfie from the April meeting, captioned: 'Went fishing with twin', tagging Clark
Vazquez posted about the meeting on his TikTok account in April, a copy of which the Daily Mail has obtained.
'Went fishing with twin @SurfaceLevel__' a caption on the photos said, with a shot of the boys dressed in camo gear, sitting on rocks beneath the Mission Bay Bridge in San Diego finalizing their evil plan.
Kaiser said he was in regular contact and had many video calls with the shooters, where they showed him their bedrooms adorned with neo-Nazi flags and symbols.
He knew something was up when Clark and Vazquez left their pro-Nazi TikTok group chat on Sunday.
Just hours before the shooting the next day, Kaiser said Clark messaged him, saying he would contact him later.
'Fleck and Surface had blocked and left all the group chat because they said they was gonna get fedded,' Kaiser said, using slang for being investigated by police.
'Surface said he would add me back after he was done being fedded.
'Then I saw the video of the shooting and him killing himself.'
Kaiser said he was in regular contact with the shooters in the lead up to the massacre and shared screenshots of his exchanges with Clark on TikTok, where the killer told him he would contact him later because he was getting 'fedded' - slang for investigated by police
Officers arrived on the scene in just four minutes, as they had already been searching for the teenagers after one of their mothers alerted cops to the threat
Vazquez was obsessed with a fictional character from a Dutch animated TV show called Mymy, and had his online girlfriend dress up as her, Kaiser said.
In the niche series Ongezellig, Mymy is a Japanese-born girl adopted by a Netherlands family, who espouses racist views and threatens a 'schoolocaust' shooting.
Kaiser shared texts between him and Vazquez with the Daily Mail, including a message where the 18-year-old shooter wrote: 'I wanna f**k Mymy so bad.'
'He just found her hot and would say if he could he would rape her to death,' Kaiser told the Daily Mail.
Images Vazquez posted on his social media show him clutching a pillow emblazoned with a three-foot print of the cartoon character.
He also posted a picture of himself in a glowing review of a plushy Mymy toy on an ecommerce website.
Kaiser said Vazquez told him he lived with a roommate, while Clark lived with his mother.
'Surface [Clark] has been to a mental hospital twice,' he said. 'He just said his mom made him do it once and the second time he put himself in it.
Vazquez was said to be obsessed with a fictional character called Mymy, a Japanese-born girl who espouses racist views and threatens a 'schoolocaust' shooting, from a Dutch animated TV show. He is seen posing with a plushy of the character
According to the friend, Vazquez had sick fantasies of 'raping to death' the anime schoolgirl. One message to Kaiser show Vazquez wrote: 'I wanna f**k Mymy so bad'
'He was deeply in the closet.
'He never talked about being gay. He hated gay people. But he did flirt and want to have sex with one of my [male] friends.'
Clark's father, Damon, is the author of a violent comic book that is now cast in a disturbing light following the shooting.
Damon's four-part series, The Circle, involves a murderous teen called Christian.
'Christian's soul is cursed forever... unless he can do the only thing that can reverse the ritual. Christian must kill all of his friends,' the teaser for part three in the graphic novel series says, in a summary on GoodReads.com.
Photos shared by Damon on Facebook in 2017 show a young Clark, wearing a '666' hat, with his mother at a concert.
Attempts to reach Damon were unsuccessful. Despite voices coming from inside his blue-painted, $1million three-bedroom home on a blue collar street, 20 miles from San Diego, no-one would come to the door.
Kaiser said Vazquez told him he was going to commit a mass killing, but didn't share details with the Kentucky friend for fear of getting caught.
'He told me he was going to do it,' Kaiser told the Daily Mail. 'He said it on a call, I believe last June.
Photos shared by Clark's father Damon on Facebook in 2017 show his young son, wearing a '666' hat, with his mother at a concert
'But he did not tell anyone the where and when because he did not want anyone to stop his plan.
'He just brings up that he's never gonna make it past 20. And he was gonna take it out on others.
'He said it like a joking and serious way,' he added. 'That he was gonna do it, and then we went back to making racist jokes.
'I just thought it was a joke so I thought it was pretty funny. But now it makes me feel uneasy. I also watched the video of him killing himself so I feel even worse.
'A synagogue was always meant to be the place. I never thought he would shoot up a mosque.
'He just hated Jews and thought they should all die.'
Though Vazquez wrote about his visceral hatred of women and being an 'involuntary celibate' in the pair's manifesto, Kaiser said the shooter had an online girlfriend.
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 suspects were found dead
Members of the Muslim community in San Diego react after the horror shooting on Monday May 18
'She was the one who recorded the shooting,' Kaiser said, referring to a screen recording of the livestream video the shooters' filmed using a body-worn camera, which was later posted online.
'She posted the shooting and him killing himself.'
After the attack, which ended with Clark shooting Vazquez then himself in the head, the alleged girlfriend then shared another user's post on TikTok about having a dead boyfriend.
One video the girlfriend posted, was of her wearing a face mask and an apparent Mymy costume.