California rail yard killing: Man fatally shoots nine co-workers

A gunman who killed nine people at a California rail yard where he worked appeared to target some of the victims, a sheriff told The Associated Press on Thursday, while a Biden administration official said the shooter spoke of hating his workplace when customs officers detained him after a 2016 trip to the Philippines.

Samuel Cassidy, 57, arrived at the light rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose around 6am on Wednesday with a duffel bag filled with semi-automatic handguns and high-capacity magazines, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said.

"It appears to us at this point that he said to one of the people there: 'I'm not going to shoot you,'" Smith said. "And then he shot other people. So I imagine there was some kind of thought on who he wanted to shoot."

While there are no cameras inside the rail yard's two buildings, Smith said footage captured him moving from one location to the next. It took deputies six minutes from the first 911 calls to find Cassidy on the third floor of one of the buildings, Smith said.

He killed himself as deputies closed in on the facility serving the county of more than 1 million people in the heart of Silicon Valley. More than 100 people were there at the time, and authorities found five victims in one building and two in another, Smith said.

Authorities do not yet know whether Cassidy had worked regularly with any of the victims. Investigators were serving search warrants for his home and cellphone, seeking to determine what prompted the bloodshed, the sheriff said.

"I'm not sure we'll ever actually find the real motive, but we'll piece it together as much as we can from witnesses," she said.

After being detained in 2016, Cassidy was found to have a memo book with notes on how he hated the Valley Transportation Authority, according to a Biden administration official who described a Department of Homeland Security memo laying out Cassidy's statements. The official saw the memo and detailed its contents to The Associated Press but was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the memo.

The memo doesn't say why he was stopped by customs officers. It said he had books about "terrorism and fear and manifestos" but when he was asked whether he had issues with people at work, he said no. It notes that Cassidy had a "minor criminal history" and cites a 1983 arrest in San Jose and charges of "misdemeanour obstruction/resisting a peace officer".

The nine victims of a shooting at a VTA rail yard. Photo / AP

Cassidy's ex-wife said he had talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago. Documents show he had worked at the transit authority since at least 2012.

"I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now," a tearful Cecilia Nelms told the AP on Wednesday.

She said he used to come home from work resentful and angry over what he perceived as unfair assignments.

"He could dwell on things," she said. The two were married for about 10 years until a 2005 divorce filing, and she had not been in touch with Cassidy for about 13 years, Nelms said.

The three 9mm handguns he had appear to be legal, sheriff's officials said. Authorities do not yet know how he obtained them.

He also had 11 high-capacity magazines, each with 12 rounds. In California, it is illegal to buy magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. However, if Cassidy obtained them before January 1, 2000, he would have been allowed to have them unless he was otherwise prohibited from possessing firearms.

The sheriff said authorities found explosives at the gunman's home, where investigators believe he had set a timer or slow-burn device so that a fire would occur at the same time as the shooting. Flames were reported minutes after the first 911 calls came in from the rail facility.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo speaks during a press conference honouring the nine people killed. Photo / AP

The attack was the 15th mass killing in the US this year, all shootings that 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.

President Joe Biden urged Congress to act on legislation to curb gun violence, saying, "Every life that is taken by a bullet pierces the soul of our nation. We can, and we must, do more."

Several long-time employees were killed, many of whom worked together.

"Whatever happened yesterday, it shows the character of these guys how they tried to save others while going through that chaotic situation," light rail superintendent Naunihal Singh said.

The victims were Alex Ward Fritch, 49; 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.

Family and friends remembered Taptejdeep Singh as a hero. He called another transit employee to warn him about Cassidy, saying he needed to get out or hide.

"He told me he was with Paul, another victim, at the time," co-worker Sukhvir Singh, who is not related to Taptejdeep Singh, said in a statement. "From what I've heard, he spent the last moments of his life making sure that others — in the building and elsewhere — would be able to stay safe."

Transit authority officials held a tearful moment of silence, reading aloud the names of the victims next to a giant poster board with their photos.

"I, unfortunately, get to know personally how these nine families have felt this past night, this morning with just a sense of disbelief, with a hope that your loved one is still going to come home and knowing that that's just never going to happen again," said Raul Peralez, a San Jose councilman and lifelong friend of Rudometkin, one of the victims.

A vigil for the victims was planned in San Jose.

Officers respond to the scene of a shooting at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Photo / AP

While public records show Cassidy faced nothing more serious than a traffic ticket in 2019, an ex-girlfriend described him in court documents filed in 2009 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 said in a sworn statement filed after Cassidy sought a restraining order against her. The documents were obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.