Heartbreak, heroism and healing at vigil for San Jose VTA mass shooting victims
By Terence Chea and Janie Har
Published
Heartbreak and healing at vigil for San Jose VTA shooting victims
Organizers of a Thursday evening vigil for the victims of the VTA mass shooting say the community will overcome grief with love. Their message to those in mourning was that they are not alone.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Taptejdeep Singh died trying to save others from a gunman. Kirk Bertolet saw some of his coworkers take their last breaths.
And friends, family and survivors were left to mourn after nine men died this week when a disgruntled coworker hauling a duffle bag full of guns and ammunition opened fire at a Northern California rail yard complex, apparently choosing his targets and sparing others.
May 28, 2021 Share
SAN JOSE 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 6 a.m. 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.”
May 27, 2021
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
An update on the rail yard shooting in California: Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said the gunman seemingly targeted some of the nine victims.
The 57-year-old man was unhappy with his job at Valley Transportation Authority according to various accounts, including his ex-wife who said he had talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago.
Sheriff Smith said the gunman also appeared to have set a timer or slow-burn device to set his home on fire. That fire was reported just minutes after the first 911 calls came in from the rail facility where yet another mass shooting in America unfolded.