San Jose Shooting Latest: 9 Victims Identified, Suspect Dead

SAN JOSE, CA — Nine people were killed in a mass shooting in San Jose Wednesday morning at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail yard, the latest tragedy that prompted President Joe Biden to call again for an end to "this epidemic of gun violence in America" and Gov. Gavin Newsom to ask, "What the hell is wrong with us?"

The shooter, who was a VTA employee, is also dead, and there is no longer a threat to the public, according to sheriff's office spokesman Deputy Russell Davis.

The attacker was identified as Sam Cassidy, 57, by multiple media outlets, including The Associated Press.

Law enforcement did not confirm the shooter's identity or a possible motive. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen declined to confirm the shooter's name in a news briefing because he didn't want to give him publicity but added that he saw the media reports.

The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a preliminary investigation by the sheriff's office. Deputies did not exchange gunfire with the suspect. Rosen said that "multiple guns" were found at the scene.

The victims were identified Wednesday evening by the Santa Clara County coroner's office after their next of kin were notified. The victims are:

• Paul Delacruz Megia, age 42
• Taptejdeep Singh, age 36
• Adrian Balleza, age 29
• Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, age 35
• Timothy Michael Romo, age 49
• Michael Joseph Rudometkin, age 40
• Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, age 63
• Lars Kepler Lane, age 63
• Alex Ward Fritch, age 49

Fritch died at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center after being transported from the scene in critical condition, the coroner's office said.

Law enforcement officials credited the sheriff's deputies and San Jose police officers for rushing into the building while gunfire was ongoing and escorting as many of the 40 employees inside as they could to safety.

"We had some heroics that I think resulted in a diminished loss of life," Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said.

Victims were shot in two separate buildings in the facility, Smith said. The incident took place during a shift change, so deputies from the midnight shift and the day shift were on the duty at the same time, according to Davis. The sheriff's office's headquarters is right across the street from the rail yard.

"They did not wait," Davis said. "They immediately went into the scene and rendered first aid and rescued victims out of the building as fast as they can."

Biden ordered flags around the country lowered to half-staff for the fifth time since March following a mass shooting.

"There are at least eight families who will never be whole again," Biden said in a 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."

"Enough," the statement said.

Explosives Found Inside

Explosives were found inside the building, and the bomb squad was on scene trying to "clear out every room and every crevice," Davis said.

"It is a fairly sizable crime scene," said FBI Special Agent Craig Fair, who leads the San Francisco division and is assisting the investigation. "It is going to take a while to process."

San Jose police responded around 6:30 a.m. to the VTA Guadalupe facility on West Younger Avenue to reports of an active shooter, police said. The shooting happened in the VTA light rail yard, not in the operations control center.

The sheriff's office tweeted that the "shooter was down" just after 8 a.m.

The mass shooting was the deadliest in the Bay Area since a 1993 shooting at a building in San Francisco in which eight people were also killed, along with the shooter.

"A horrible tragedy has happened today," VTA board Chair Glenn Hendricks said at a news briefing. "Our thoughts and love goes out to VTA family, the organization and what they’ve had to go through."

The rail yard serves as a maintenance facility for VTA, a transit agency serving Santa Clara County with more than 2,000 employees.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo called the incident a "very dark moment" for San Jose and a "mayor's worst nightmare."

"This is a horrific day for our city, and it’s a tragic day for our VTA center," Liccardo said at a news briefing. "Our heart pains for the families and for the co-workers. We know that so many are feeling deeply this loss of their loved ones and their friends. Now is a moment for us to collect ourselves to understand what happened to mourn and to help those who have suffered to heal."

Liccardo said his attention will be on ensuring that "this never happens again in our city."

Unification Area Set Up

A unification area was set up for families at 70 W. Hedding St., and a family assistance center is located at 2731 N. First St. Those concerned for family members can call 408-209-8356. Eight or nine families are at the assistance center getting help from the county's support staff, according to the district attorney's office.

Newsom said he talked with families who are trying to call and reach their loved ones who were in the facility but haven't heard back.

"When they said goodbye to their spouse this morning, their husband, they didn’t mean goodbye forever," Rosen said. "They meant goodbye until dinner time. And I'm just so sorry."

Newsom canceled a scheduled event Wednesday to appear at an afternoon news briefing in San Jose. He called on everyone to "wake up to this reality and take a little damn responsibility." People were expressing "all the right emotions and perhaps the right words, but it begs the damn question: 'What the hell is going on in the United States of America?'" he asked.

"Pick a state, and here we are in the United States of America, we’re experiencing something that’s not experienced anywhere else in the world," Newsom said. "There’s a sameness to this. And a numbness I think is something we’re all feeling."

The San Jose Fire Department responded to a house fire in East San Jose at 6:36 a.m., which Liccardo confirmed was the alleged shooter's house. Liccardo said nobody was found inside the house. A heavy police presence remained at the scene and a one-block radius around the home has been evacuated.

"It would appear that the fire was set as the shooter was on his way to the worksite," Liccardo said.

Law enforcement officials provided no further details on the fire and whether it was connected with the shooting.

The shooting occurred at the location mapped below.

VTA Service Temporarily Shut Down

VTA employees were evacuated from the Guadalupe maintenance yard. Sheriff's deputies remained on the scene.

VTA said it shut down light rail service at noon "until further notice" because the light rail yard remains an active investigation scene. The transit agency will provide limited service through bus bridges.

Vice President Kamala Harris, a former U.S. senator from California with Bay Area roots, told reporters in Washington that the shooting was "absolutely tragic," adding that she has family in San Jose and has worked with the city's mayor and police department for many years.

"I’m just so in shock something like this happened in Santa Clara County," said Mike Wasserman, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said her heart was broken for the families of the victims.

"These folks were heroes during COVID-19," Chavez said. "The buses never stopped running. VTA didn’t stop running. They just kept at work. Now we’re really calling on them to be heroes a second time to survive such a terrible, terrible tragedy."

The San Jose-based community organization Working Partnerships USA and the South Bay Labor Council set up a fund to support families of the shooting victims. Donations can be made at bit.ly/vtasolidarity.

A map of the unification point is below.

Bay City News contributed to this report.