Thursday, May 27, 2021

San Jose shooting: ten dead, including gunman, after attack at California rail yard

 

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A shooting that erupted in the early hours of Wednesday morning at a light rail maintenance yard in San Jose, California, has left at least ten people dead, including the gunman.

a construction site in a parking lot: Photograph: Philip Pacheco/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Philip Pacheco/Getty Images

Local leaders have described the violence as a “terrible, terrible” tragedy as authorities search for a motive.

Authorities reported on Wednesday that about 40 people were at the facility at the time the shootings occurred and the gunfire erupted in two separate buildings. Police say the shooter was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority, which operates the light rail facility in Silicon Valley.

The shooting began around 6.30am local time in a facility that stores trains and serves as a transit control center, and the victims include employees of the facility.

“These folks were heroes during Covid-19. The buses never stopped running, VTA didn’t stop running,” said Cindy Chavez, a Santa Clara county supervisor. “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.”

a group of people standing in front of a crowd: VTA workers cross West Hedding Street near the scene of a mass shooting in San Jose. Photograph: Randy Vazquez/AP© Provided by The Guardian VTA workers cross West Hedding Street near the scene of a mass shooting in San Jose. Photograph: Randy Vazquez/AP

Plans were under way for a vigil at the San Jose city hall on Thursday evening.

“These are the women and men who supported our community through this pandemic,” said San Jose’s mayor, Sam Liccardo, at a press briefing. “They showed up to work every day as essential workers, despite risks to their own health. We owe them and their families so much … For now, we need to focus on everything we can do to support these families and their loved ones.”

a bus parked in a parking lot: The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail yard where the shooting occurred.© Photograph: Philip Pacheco/Getty Images The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail yard where the shooting occurred.

Governor Gavin Newsom, who cancelled another event to rush to the scene, described gun violence in the US as an epidemic.

“This happens again and again – rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat,” he said. “It begs the question what the hell is going on in America?”

Newsom spoke emotionally in front of a county office where flags flew at half-staff. He said victims’ relatives were “waiting to hear from the coroner, waiting to hear from any of us, just desperate to find out if their brother their son, their dad, their mom is still alive”.

Two people hug on Younger Avenue outside the scene of a shooting in San Jose. Photograph: Randy Vazquez/AP© Provided by The Guardian Two people hug on Younger Avenue outside the scene of a shooting in San Jose. Photograph: Randy Vazquez/AP

Kamala Harris, the vice-president and a former senator of California, and Pete Buttigieg, the transport secretary, have also lamented the violence. “Transit workers have kept the traveling public safe this past year – we must do the same for them,” Buttigeig said in a statement.

Meanwhile, dozens of family members have streamed into a reunification center set up in a county building.

“They’re just sitting and holding hands and crying,” said Jeff Rosen, the district attorney of Santa Clara county, describing the scene. “It’s terrible. It’s awful. It’s raw.”

Raul Peralez, a local city council member, said he was waiting to hear from a close friend who worked at the transit center.

“This hits close to home for me,” he said. “I have a close friend – I’m still waiting for his status. He’s been a friend since middle school. His wife is on her way down here now.

“Not even knowing that information is devastating and I can understand how so many families are feeling right now,” he said.

The violence began early on Wednesday morning. Raj Singh, a union leader with the VTA operators union, told the Mercury News that the shooting occurred during the busiest time of day at the light rail facility, when employees are reporting to work and getting ready to start transit service.

Laurie Smith, the sheriff of Santa Clara county, said sheriff’s deputies entered the building while the shots were still being fired, but did not fire upon the suspect.

a car driving on a city street filled with lots of traffic: Police and investigators at the scene of a shooting at the San Jose Valley Transportation Authority light rail yard. Photograph: John G Mabanglo/EPA© Provided by The Guardian Police and investigators at the scene of a shooting at the San Jose Valley Transportation Authority light rail yard. Photograph: John G Mabanglo/EPA

The active shooter rescue team “ran into the building as shots were being fired. And I know that it saved many lives,” Smith said. “We had some heroics that I think resulted in a diminished loss of life.”

Multiple news reports have identified the attacker as 57-year-old Sam Cassidy, citing law enforcement sources. Authorities said the shooter took his own life.

A spokesperson for the Santa Clara sheriff’s office said bomb-sniffing dogs detected explosives at the shooting scene. The authorities are bringing in a bomb robot to scan the scene. “They are searching every crevice of the building,” he said.

The sheriff’s department confirmed in a press conference that it was investigating whether the shooting was related to one or more fires that broke out in San Jose around the same time.

The San Jose fire department responded to a large house fire at 6.36am, and another fire in a commercial area at 6.26am. Both were reported just moments before the shooting at the rail yard, which is a few minutes’ drive away.

a group of people standing in a parking lot: Authorities approach a home being investigated in connection to the shooting. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP© Provided by The Guardian Authorities approach a home being investigated in connection to the shooting. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

An FBI spokesman, Craig Fair, said the FBI was flying in extra assistance from the agency’s resource center at Quantico, Virginia.

San Jose, the 10th-largest city in the US with more than a million people, is about 50 miles south of San Francisco in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Wednesday’s attack was the county’s second mass shooting in less than two years. A gunman killed three people before killing himself at a popular garlic festival in Gilroy in July 2019.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, it was the deadliest mass shooting in the Bay Area since 1993, when eight people and a gunman were killed at the 101 California Street skyscraper in San Francisco.

A fuller picture of the attacker began to emerge by Wednesday evening. Sam Cassidy’s ex-wife, Cecilia Nelms, told the Associated Press that Cassidy had a bad temper and would tell her that he wanted to kill people at work, “but I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now.”

Nelms, shaken by the news, said her ex-husband would come home wound up and angry about things that happened at work. As he talked about it, “he would get more mad”, she said. “He could dwell on things.”

When Cassidy lost his temper, Nelms said there were times she was scared. He was someone who could physically hurt others, she said.

Nelms said they were married for 10 years. Cassidy filed for divorce in 2005 and had not been in contact for 13 years. She said he had been treated for depression.

Transit authority mechanic Rochelle Hawkins said she dropped her phone when she heard shots.

“I was running so fast, I just ran for my life,” she said. “I would hope everyone would just pray for the VTA family. Just pray for us.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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