The gunman, a maintenance worker at a transit agency in Silicon Valley, killed nine of his colleagues years after federal officials uncovered a notebook with his complaints.
The San Jose shooting suspect used a variety of tactics that aren't common in mass shootings, from harboring bomb-making materials to rigging his home to go up in flames.
Killer of eight in California had talked of workplace attacks
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Law enforcement officers respond to the scene of a shooting at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) facility on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, in San Jose, Calif. Santa Clara County sheriff s spokesman said the railyard shooting left multiple people, including the shooter, dead. (Noah Berger/AP)
SAN JOSE, Calif. An employee who gunned down eight people at a California rail yard and then killed himself as law enforcement rushed in had talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago, his ex-wife said.
“I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now,” a tearful Cecilia Nelms told The Associated Press on Wednesday following the 6:30 a.m. attack at a light rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority.
San Jose mass shooter faced disciplinary hearing on the day of the massacre for making racist remarks to coworkers as new footage shows him walking across rail lines just minutes into massacre that killed nine
Samuel Cassidy was due at a disciplinary hearing over racist comments on the day of the mass shooting on San Jose Wednesday
Surveillance video showed Cassidy, 57, walking from one shooting site to another at the Valley Transportation Authority minutes into the massacre
Cassidy was held by U.S. Customs officers returning from the Philippines in 2016, according to report
A memo says Cassidy possessed books about terrorism and fear and manifestos… as well as a black memo book filled with lots of notes about how he hates the Valley Transportation Authority where he worked
Samuel Cassidy prepared for years to unleash his rage.
He had weapons. He read up on terrorism and manifestos. He harbored bomb-making materials. He rigged his home to go up in an inferno as he set out to kill nine fellow employees at a light-rail hub in San Jose.
While he plotted intricately for a mass attack, appearing like a terrorist on a mission, his motive was much simpler: He just hated his co-workers.
That s the picture painted so far by law enforcement as detectives try to understand the pent-up animosity that Cassidy appears to have kindled for a decade against the people he worked alongside.