Authorities ID 8 victims of California railyard shooting
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) â An employee opened fire Wednesday at a California rail yard, killing eight people before taking his own life as law enforcement rushed in, authorities said, marking the latest attack in a year that has seen a sharp increase in mass killings as the nation emerges from coronavirus restrictions.
The shooting took place around 6:30 a.m. in two buildings that are part of a light rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority, which provides bus, light rail and other transit services throughout Santa Clara County, the most populated county in the San Francisco Bay Area. The facility in San Jose includes a transit-control center, parking for trains and a maintenance yard.
SAN JOSE, Calif. – A Northern California rail yard worker who gunned down nine other employees before taking his own life appeared to target his victims and fired more than 39 shots, the Santa Clara County sheriff said Thursday.
The gunman, whose ex-wife says struggled with anger issues, told at least one person: I’m not going to shoot you, Sheriff Laurie Smith said. And then he shot other people. So I imagine there was some kind of thought on who he wanted to shoot.
Authorities say the suspect, identified as Samuel J. Cassidy, 57, opened fire at about 6:30 a.m. local time Wednesday in two buildings at the sprawling Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light rail hub. VTA provides bus, light rail and other transit services throughout Santa Clara County, the most populated county in the Bay Area.
The suspect was also dead, authorities said.
Santa Clara County sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Russell Davis said the suspect was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority, which provides bus, light rail and other transit services throughout Santa Clara County, the largest county in the Bay Area.
Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said it was “undetermined” how the shooter died.
The scene on TV (KGO-TV/ABC7/AP)
The shooting took place at around 6:30am at a light rail facility in San Jose next door to the sheriff’s department and across a freeway from the airport. The facility is a transit control centre that stores trains and has a maintenance yard.
A gunman who killed nine people at a San Jose rail yard fired 39 shots and appeared to target some of the victims, a sheriff told The Associated Press on.
Claudia Cowan reports from the scene in San Jose, Calif., with the latest on the investigation into the deadly shooting.
The widow of a California transit employee who was killed with eight others Wednesday by a colleague during a workplace shooting called him her rock and that he died in her arms.
Alex Ward Fritch, 49, was one of nine fatalities – including the gunman – from the mass shooting at a Valley Transportation Authority rail yard in San Jose. Fritch passed away in a hospital Wednesday night. Alex was everything to this family, his widow, Tara Fritch, told FOX affiliate KTVU-TV from her San Jose home Thursday morning. He was our rock. My safe place to fall.