San Jose Shooting Victims Remembered As Dedicated VTA Employees

SAN JOSE, CA — Paul Megia, 42, an assistant superintendent at the Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority, was always willing to assist his employees and accepted everything with a smile.

Taptejdeep Singh, 36, a light rail operator, constantly asked how he could help others.

Adrian Balleza, 29, a maintenance worker and light rail operator, was kindhearted and tried to make the job fun for his colleagues.

They were among the nine VTA employees killed early Wednesday morning in a mass shooting at a rail yard by a fellow employee who then took his own life, according to a preliminary investigation by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

Transit agency officials and colleagues spoke at a news briefing Thursday outside of VTA headquarters in San Jose to honor the employees who lost their lives. Many held back tears as they tried to make sense of what is believed to be the deadliest mass shooting in Bay Area history.

Naunihal Singh, superintendent of the light rail yard, has worked at VTA for 22 years. The employees who lost their lives spent their last moments ushering their co-workers to safety, he said.

“It shows the character of these guys, how they tried to save others while going through the chaotic situation,” Singh said. “I don’t know what kind of poker face I can put out there as a leader to support them. I’m going through a lot of confused emotions. I’m angry, sad; I'm at a loss for words.”

In addition to Megia, Singh and Balleza, here are the other six victims who were killed in the shooting.

• Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, 35, who started in 2012 as a transit mechanic and later worked as an electromechanical and a substation maintainer.
• Timothy Michael Romo, 49, who spent more than 20 years as an overhead line worker.
• Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40, who started in 2013 and was an electromechanic and overhead line worker.
• Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63, a substation maintainer for more than 20 years.
• Lars Kepler Lane, 63, who started an electromechanic in 2001 and later became an overhead line worker.
• Alex Ward Fritch, 49, a substation maintainer.

Many of the employees had worked at VTA for decades, and they bonded over their work, which involved responding to emergencies on the rail, said George Sandoval, the light rail maintenance operations manager. VTA, which has served Santa Clara County since 1973, has more than 2,000 employees.

“Staff move into different positions so they work throughout the organization, so we all know each other, and it’s beyond just the facility you’re in,” Sandoval said. “It’s agency-wide, and it truly is a VTA family.”

The tragedy was personal for San Jose Councilmember Raul Peralez, who lost a lifelong friend in Rudometkin. Peralez, who spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning with Rudometkin’s friends and family, said he had a “sense of disbelief” and “a hope that your loved one is still going to come home.”

“And knowing that’s just never going to happen again — it has been painstaking and heartbreaking,” Peralez said. “I truly feel for all of the victims' families, all of the survivors, the friends, the loved ones and our community as a whole that is mourning in this tragedy.”

Throughout the day following the shooting, families of the victims and survivors filtered into the unification area on Hedding Street and the family assistance center on First Street. They called and texted and in one case used the “find my iPhone” feature in desperate hope for a sign of life. Many were eventually able to hug their loved ones again.

“That did not happen for Abdolvahab, Adrian, Alex, Jose, Lars, Michael, Paul, Taptejdeep and Timothy,” said Evelyn Tran, the interim general manager and CEO of VTA.

Tran was at the family assistance center on Wednesday. She saw the pain in the faces of family members and heard their cries when they found out the unthinkable. VTA employees go through active shooter training. But no amount of training prepared Tran for dealing with the aftermath of a mass shooting.

“It was utterly heart-wrenching,” Tran said. “And I felt immensely helpless.”

VTA board Chair Glenn Hendricks held back tears as he read the names of each of the victims, followed by their job titles and length of tenure. Standing next to a poster with the pictures of the victims below the words #VTAFamily and a red broken heart with the VTA logo in the middle, Hendricks closed with a haiku that he wrote Wednesday night dedicated to the victims.

Our friends will be missed
Serving riders makes us smile
Nine will inspire us