On 5/27/2021 8:50 PM, gggg gggg wrote:
> https://news.yahoo.com/following-san-jose-mass-shooting-014500995.html
>

from
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/05/28/san-jose-vta-shooter-samuel-cassidy-detained-us-customs-terrorist-writing/

SAN JOSE (CBS SF/AP) — A source has confirmed to KPIX that Samuel
Cassidy, the VTA employee who killed nine people at a San Jose rail yard
Wednesday morning, had been facing a disciplinary hearing Wednesday at
the VTA over his conduct in the past.

Earlier Thursday, Federal authorities confirmed that Cassidy had been
detained by U.S. Customs agents five years ago because he had writings
about terrorism and hating his workplace.

Authorities identified the attacker as 57-year-old Valley Transportation
Authority employee and San Jose resident Samuel Cassidy.

A federal official confirms to CBS News that Cassidy had been detained
by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after returning to the States from
the Philippines in 2016 due to the writings found in his possession. The
Wall Street Journal first reported this.

According to the New York Times, in addition to a notebook that Cassidy
had written in detailing how much he hated the VTA, officials found
books on the subjects of terrorism and manifestoes.

Cassidy reportedly told agents he had no problems with people at work.
The information regarding the 2016 incident is contained in a DHS memo
concerning the encounter.

Cassidy fatally shot nine coworkers at a Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority (VTA) rail yard before killing himself as law
enforcement rushed the shooting scene.

Thursday afternoon, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office issued an
update on their investigation into the deadly incident that made note of
Cassidy’s feelings towards his workplace.

“Based on recent developments in the investigation we can say that the
suspect has been a highly disgruntled VTA employee for many years, which
may have contributed to why he targeted VTA employees,” the sheriff’s
update read.

KPIX obtained a brief clip of surveillance video from the VTA light rail
yard that showed Cassidy casually walking between the two buildings
where he gunned down nine of his coworkers Wednesday morning.

“Right now, we think he fired about 39 rounds,” said Santa Clara County
Sheriff Laurie Smith.

Smith told KPIX 5 that Cassidy picked out his victims–who would live and
who would die.

“To one person he said, ‘I’m not going to shoot you.’ And then he
started shooting others,” Smith explained.

The gunman had three semiautomatic handguns and 32 loaded high-capacity
12 round magazines, according to Smith. She had earlier incorrectly
stated during a Thursday morning press conference that he only had two
handguns and 11 high-capacity magazines.

A locker at the rail yard believed to be the gunman’s contained
“materials for bombs, detonator cords, the precursors to an explosive,”
Smith said.

“When our deputies went through the door, initially he was still firing
rounds. When our deputy saw him, he took his life,” Smith told reporters.

Smith said the handguns he had appear to be legal but his high-capacity
magazines are prohibited in California.

Additionally, Smith said the shooter appeared to to have a timer or
device to set his home on fire 13 miles away from the VTA scene.

Jeff Harp, former assistant special agent in charge of the San Francisco
FBI office says a concern is booby traps.

“This guy worked for VTA for some time so he knows all the nooks and
crannies where police may look but not suspect and that’s where they’ve
gotta be real careful,” Harp said.

Harp says everything that happened Wednesday — from the shooting to the
fire at Cassidy’s south San Jose home — happened with this fact in mind:
“He was certainly aware that VTA was in close proximity to the sheriff’s
department. He knew that. He’d worked there for years. He knew it was
going to happen quick.”

Cassidy’s ex-wife Cecilia Nelms told KPIX that while Cassidy had talked
about harming co-workers, she never imagined anything like this.

UPDATE: VTA Officials Memorialize Employees Killed In Massacre

She said Cassidy also had anger issues but never physically hurt her.
“I’m in shock, I’m very confused,” she said.

Nelms recalled how uncomfortable he was around other people. “Not a very
friendly person, kept things to himself,” said Nelms.

Nelms said talk of killing his co-workers happened about a decade ago.
“I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now,” a tearful
Nelms told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Samuel Cassidy (Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office)

The number of people fatally shot by the gunman rose from eight after
the Santa Clara County’s medical examiner-coroner late Wednesday
confirmed the death of Alex Ward Fritch, 49. He had been wounded and
hospitalized in critical condition after the attack.

The sheriff’s office is next door to VTA’s Guadalupe rail yard at 101 W.
Younger Ave., which serves the county of more than 1 million people in
the heart of the Silicon Valley.

READ MORE: Who Is Samuel Cassidy, Gunman In San Jose Mass Shooting At
VTA Rail Yard?

It was the 15th mass killing in the nation this year, all of them
shootings that have claimed at least four lives each for a total of 87
deaths, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA
Today and Northeastern University.

At the White House, President Joe Biden ordered flags to be flown at
half-staff and urged Congress to act on legislation to curb gun violence.

“Every life that is taken by a bullet pierces the soul of our nation. We
can, and we must, do more,” Biden said in a statement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the site and then spoke emotionally about the
country’s latest mass killing.

“There’s a numbness some of us are feeling about this. There’s a
sameness to this,” he said. “It begs the damn question of what the hell
is going on in the United States of America?”

Members of a union representing VTA workers were meeting when the
shooting began, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said, but it’s not clear the
meeting was related to the attack.

The shooting took place in two buildings and killed employees who had
been bus and light rail operators, mechanics, linemen and an assistant
superintendent over the course of their careers. One had worked for the
agency since 1999.

Eight victims identified earlier were Paul Delacruz Megia, 42;
Taptejdeep Singh, 36; Adrian Balleza, 29; Jose Dejesus Hernandez, 35;
Timothy Michael Romo, 49; Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40; Abdolvahab
Alaghmandan, 63, and Lars Kepler Lane, 63.

Singh had worked as a light rail train driver for eight or nine years
and had a wife, two small children and many family members, said his
cousin, Bagga Singh.

“We heard that he chose the people to shoot, but I don’t know why they
choose him because he has nothing to do with him,” he said.

San Jose City Councilman Raul Peralez said Rudometkin was a close friend.

“There are no words to describe the heartache we are feeling right now,
especially for his family,” he wrote on Facebook. “Eight families are
feeling this same sense of loss tonight and our entire community is
mourning as well.”

There was nothing in public records to indicate Cassidy ever got in
trouble with the law. He received a traffic ticket in 2019 and sheriff’s
officials said they were still investigating his background.

But in court documents filed in 2009, an ex-girlfriend described him as
volatile and violent, with major mood swings because of bipolar disorder
that became worse when he drank heavily.

Several times while he was drunk, Cassidy forced himself on her sexually
despite her refusals, pinning her arms with his body weight, the woman
alleged in a sworn statement filed after Cassidy sought a restraining
order against her. The documents were obtained by The San Francisco
Chronicle.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have
been sexually assaulted.

Cassidy had worked for Valley Transportation Authority since at least
2012, according to the public payroll and pension database Transparent
California, first as a mechanic from 2012 to 2014, then as someone who
maintained substations.

Officials also were investigating a house fire that broke out shortly
before the shooting, Davis said. Public records show Cassidy owned the
two-story home where firefighters responded after being notified by a
passerby. Law enforcement officers cordoned off the area near the home
and went in and out Wednesday.

The gunman probably “set some kind of a device to go off at a certain
time probably to coincide with the shooting,” the sheriff told “Today.”

Wednesday’s attack was the deadliest shooting in the San Francisco Bay
Area since 1993, when a gunman attacked law offices in San Francisco’s
Financial District, killing eight people before taking his own life.

It also was Santa Clara County’s second mass shooting in less than two
years. A gunman killed three people and then himself at a popular garlic
festival in Gilroy in July 2019.

On 5/28/2021 11:18 AM, a425couple wrote:
> On 5/27/2021 8:50 PM, gggg gggg wrote:
>> https://news.yahoo.com/following-san-jose-mass-shooting-014500995.html
>
> from
> https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/05/28/san-jose-vta-shooter-samuel-cassidy-detained-us-customs-terrorist-writing/
>
>
> SAN JOSE (CBS SF/AP) — A source has confirmed to KPIX that Samuel
> Cassidy, the VTA employee who killed nine people at a San Jose rail yard
> Wednesday morning, had been facing a disciplinary hearing Wednesday at
> the VTA over his conduct in the past.
>
Hmmm,,,,
Interesting that no other source is claiming this.
And at least one is denying any discipline was planned.