SAN JOSE (California, US), May 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A gunman opened fire at a Northern California light rail yard Wednesday, killing at least eight people in the latest shooting rampage to rock the nation in recent weeks.
Police spokesman Russell Davis said the gunman, an employee at the sprawling Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail hub, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and other employees were among the victims.
One person was in critical condition at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, spokesperson Joy Alexiou said.
Davis did not say how long the gunman had worked at the hub, what kind of weapon he used or whether he had a firearm license. A motive was not immediately clear.
“This is still a fluid and ongoing incident,” Davis said. “We’re trying to figure out what exactly happened.”
Davis said several 911 calls came in around 6:30 a.m. local time, as officers were changing shifts. Officers responded to the VTA site, which stores trains and serves as a maintenance yard, and rendered first aid, he said. The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office is nearby.
“When the sheriffs were on scene, they were on scene quickly enough to still hear gunshots,” County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said. “They did their best and got on campus as quickly as they could.”
Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said officers found deceased victims in two buildings on the campus and that the suspect was still alive when the deputies arrived. “He took his life when we found him,” she said, adding that the deputies never exchanged fire with the suspect.
Smith said bomb dogs alerted officers to the presence of explosives on the scene, and a bomb squad was going from room to room with a robot to clear the buildings.
“There are many, many components that we’re continuing to discover,” Smith said.
The FBI, Homeland Security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting on the scene. Craig Fair, the FBI special agent in charge, said the crime scene was “fairly sizable” and is “going to take a while to process.”
The VTA runs three light rail lines covering more than 40 miles and operates 70 bus lines in the region. Light rail services would be down for several days, VTA said Wednesday.
Law enforcement officials have not publicly named the suspect. Two law enforcement sources, however, identified the suspect as Samuel Cassidy. Records suggest Cassidy, 57, had been licensed with the Bureau of Automotive Repair as a smog check repair technician since 2003. He previously worked for a car dealership in the city.
Authorities have not indicated if Cassidy was a legal gun owner or what type of firearm was used in the attack.
Around the time of the shooting, the San Jose Fire Department responded to a large structure fire at an address listed to Cassidy. Mayor Sam Liccardo told ABC-7 it appeared that the gunman set the fire on his way to the work site. The fire department could not immediately confirm any relationship between the incidents.
“This is a horrific day for our city and tragic day for the VTA family,” Liccardo said. “Our heart pains for the families and the co-workers.”
Flags were at half-staff Wednesday afternoon, and local officials set up a fundraiser for victims and their families. A vigil was planned for 6 p.m. local time Thursday at city hall.
“These folks were heroes during COVID-19. The buses never stopped running. The VTA didn’t stop running. They just kept at work, and now we’re really calling on them to be heroes a second time – to survive such a terrible, terrible tragedy,” Chavez said.
Loved ones gathered at a family reunification center at the nearby county administration building, where counselors provided support, Liccardo said.
Santa Clara County is the sixth-largest county in California.The shooting Wednesday marks its second mass shooting in less than two years. In 2019, a gunman opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California, killing three people and wounding 17.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, visibly emotional, expressed frustration at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. He said he felt a “sameness” and “numbness” in the wake of yet another mass shooting.
“It begs the damn question: What the hell is going on in the United States of America?” Newsom said. “We rinse and repeat someplace else in this country.”
He called on Americans to “move beyond the platitudes and the usual rhetoric” that typically follow a mass shooting and to “not make this meaningless.”
“We are still awaiting many of the details of this latest mass shooting in San Jose, but there are some things we know for sure,” President Joe Biden said on Twitter Wednesday. “There are at least eight families who will never be whole again. Every life taken by a bullet pierces the soul of our nation. We must do more.”
There have been 15 mass killings in 2021, each with at least four victims killed.
San Jose’s shooting marked the worst workplace mass shooting since last month when a gunman fatally shot eight people and then shot himself at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. — NNN-AGENCIES
