Newsman: A public transit employee opened fire on co-workers and killed eight people at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail yard in San Jose, California, on Wednesday morning, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. According to a law enforcement source, Cassidy shot virtually everyone on the morning shift, including some he had worked with for years. Victims were shot in two different buildings.
The shooter was identified as Samuel Cassidy 57, a maintenance worker of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), shot and killed himself at the scene, sheriff’s spokesperson Russell Davis said. Early indications are that the shooting was related to a workplace issue and that it did not involve riders of Santa Clara County’s light rail system, sources said to the news media. “We received information that there are explosive devices that are located inside the building,” sheriff’s spokesperson Davis told reporters at the scene. “We’re trying to clear out every room, every crevice of that building.” Even hours after the shooter died, a bomb squad was clearing the area in case he left explosives behind.
President Joe Biden urged Congress to take immediate action on the issue of gun control, saying that the current violence is “enough” following the shooting Wednesday.
“There are at least eight families who will never be whole again,” Biden said in the statement. “There are children, parents, and spouses who are waiting to hear whether someone they love is ever going to come home. There are union brothers and sisters — good, honest, hardworking people — who are mourning their own.”
White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the federal government is keeping in close contact with law enforcement in San Jose.
“We will continue to stay in close contact with them and offer any assistance as needed,” she said. “We still don’t know all of the details … but what’s clear, as the president has said, is that we are suffering from an epidemic of gun violence in this country, both in mass shootings and in the lives that are being taken in daily gun violence that doesn’t make national headlines.”
At a news briefing Wednesday afternoon, Gov Gavin Newsom said there is a “sameness and a numbness to these incidents,” after meeting with family members of the victims, and asked when the shootings will stop.
FBI special agent in charge Craig Fair, who oversees the San Francisco office, said the FBI is assisting local authorities and is providing evidence help and technical forensic analysis of the crime scene, and will be bringing technicians from across the country.
“This is a horrific day for our city and it is a tragic day for the VTA family, and our heart pains for the families and the co-workers because we know so many are feeling deeply this loss of their loved ones and their friends,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.
The VTA shut down light rail service starting at noon today until further notice, the agency said on Twitter, with buses filling in some of the gaps.
“The light rail yard remains an active investigation scene, limiting our ability to provide service,” the agency said.
Officials said they received multiple 911 calls around 6:35 a.m. from witnesses who reported hearing shots ring out at the VTA rail yard on West Younger Avenue near downtown San Jose.
The gunman set his own house on fire before he drove to a Valley Transportation Authority union meeting and began shooting; law enforcement officials said Officials with the San Jose Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Jeff Fielding that there was a house fire on Angmar Court around 6:30 Wednesday morning. Firefighters responded to a blaze at the gunman’s home at 6:36 a.m. No one was in home or reported injuries. His ex-wife filed a restraining order against him in 2009, according to court records. “We’re trying to figure out, exactly, if there’s a connection” between the fire and shooting, spokesperson Davis said.
As of mid-Wednesday, investigators believed there were still explosive devices at the VTA site, and light rail service was suspended indefinitely.
