8 dead in capturing at rail backyard serving Silicon Valley
27 May, 2021
An employee opened fire Wednesday in a California rail lawn serving Silicon Valley, killing 8 persons before ending his unique life, authorities said.
The suspect was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority, which provides bus, light rail and other transit providers throughout Santa Clara County, the most populated county in the Bay Area, authorities said.
The attacker was recognized as 57-year-old Sam Cassidy, according to two police. Investigators offered no immediate word on a possible motive.
The shooting occurred around 6:30 a.m. at a light rail center which includes a transit-control middle, parking for trains and a repair yard.
Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Russell Davis stated the attack also led to “multiple major accidents.” He did not know the type of weapon utilized. He stated the victims included VTA staff. Authorities didn't release the victims' names.
“These people were heroes during COVID-19. The buses never stopped running, VTA didn’t stop operating. They just placed at work, and today we’re really contacting them to get heroes a second period to survive such a terrible, terrible tragedy,” Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez.
It was not clear exactly where in fact the shooting happened. VTA Chairman Glenn Hendricks stated it occurred in the rail backyard but not in operations control centre. Santa Clara County District Lawyer Jeff Rosen explained it had been his understanding the shooting happened inside the VTA building during a morning meeting.
Victims' grief-stricken family members sat huddled together, holding hands and crying, after learning that they had lost a loved one, Rosen told reporters, describing the picture in the county building.
“They’re just sitting down and holding hands and crying,” Rosen said. “It’s awful. It’s awful. It’s raw. Folks are learning they misplaced their husband, their child, their brother.” He stated about 100 people were inside family reunification center.
Police vehicles and orange crime-scene tape blocked off the area, and reporters were kept far away The rail yard is found in the city’s administrative community, nearby the sheriff's office and metropolis and county offices.
Bomb squads were searching the rail complex after acquiring information regarding possible explosive gadgets inside building, Davis said.
Officials were also investigating a residence fire that broke out shortly prior to the shooting, Davis said. Public records show Cassidy possessed a two-story residence where firefighters responded Wednesday morning. Fire crews discovered a fast-going blaze after being notified by a passer-by. A neighboring house as well caught fire, authorities said.
Cassidy had worked for the VTA since in least 2012, according to the consumer payroll and pension data source referred to as Transparent California. His placement from 2012 to 2014 was detailed as a mechanic. After that, he was a substation maintainer, the records said.
VTA trains were already out on morning runs when the shooting occurred. Light rail service was to come to be suspended at noon and substituted with bus bridges, Hendricks advised a news conference.
“It’s just very hard for everyone to have the ability try to wrap their heads around and know very well what has happened,” Hendricks said.
Beyond your scene, Michael Hawkins told The Mercury Media that he was looking forward to his mom, Rochelle Hawkins, who had called him from a co-worker’s phone to make sure him that she was secure.
When the shooting started, “she got straight down with the rest of her coworkers” and dropped her cellphone, Michael Hawkins told the newspaper. Rochelle Hawkins didn't start to see the shooter, and she was not sure how close she have been to the attacker, her child said.
The bloodshed will come in a year which has seen a sharp upsurge in mass killings as the country emerges from pandemic restrictions that closed various public places and kept persons confined with their homes.
A database published by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University that tracks every mass killing during the last 15 years implies that the San Jose attack may be the 15th mass killing up to now in 2021, every one of them shootings.
Eighty-six people have died found in the shootings, weighed against 106 for most of 2020. It's the sixth mass killing in a open public place in 2021. The data source defines mass killings as four people dead, not including the shooter, signifying the entire toll of gun violence is a lot bigger when adding in smaller sized incidents.
White House deputy press secretary Karine Jeane-Pierre said the administration was monitoring the problem in San Jose. She reiterated President Joe Biden’s demand Congress to move gun control measures.
“What’s distinct, as the President possesses said, is that people are suffering from a great epidemic of gun violence on this country, both on mass shootings and in the lives that happen to be being used daily gun violence that doesn’t make countrywide headlines,” she said.
San Jose, the 10th-largest city in the U.S. with more than a million people, is approximately 50 kilometers south of San Francisco in the center of Silicon Valley.
In the city itself, the newest mass capturing occurred in 2019 at an exclusive home, according to The Mercury News. Law enforcement said it had been a quadruple murder and suicide precipitated by relatives conflict.
Source: japantoday.com
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