Authorities in San José, California, reported that there are four Latinos between the ages of 29 and 49 among the nine fatalities in Wednesday's shooting at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) building. ).
About 30% of the population of this city is Latino.
The victims
Among the nine fatalities, there are four Latinos between the ages of 29 and 49.
These are:
Paul Delacruz Megia, 42
Adrian Balleza, 29
Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, 35
Timothy Michael Romo, 49
Paul Delacruz Megia, victim of the shooting at a VTA building in San José, California, with his children.Noticias Telemundo
Delacruz Megia's wife, Nicole Yamada, said in a statement: “Paul was a wonderful husband and father who was full of love, jokes, energy for life and always up for new adventures.
I treasure all our memories.
God took him too soon and he would do anything to have one last hug and goodbye.
I will miss having my best friend by my side.
I love you forever".
The rest of the victims are:
Taptejdeep Singh, 36
Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40
Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63
Lars Kepler Lade, 63
Alex Ward Fritch, 49
The shooting took place in two buildings and killed employees who had been bus and light rail operators, mechanics, linemen, and a deputy superintendent.
One of them had worked for the agency since 1999.
Singh had worked as a light rail driver for eight or nine years and had a wife, two young children and many relatives, his cousin, Bagga Singh, told The Associated Press news agency.
Authorities respond to a shooting at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) facility Wednesday, May 26, 2021, in San Jose, Calif. AP / Noah Berger
The attacker had talked about killing people from his work
The attacker, identified as Samuel Cassidy, shot himself and took his own life after killing his co-workers.
Cassidy, 57, was a VTA employee, according to the county Sheriff's Office.
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He has worked with the VTA since at least 2012, according to public records.
First as a mechanic from 2012 to 2014 and then maintaining the substations.
According to the state's public employee records, an employee with the same name and title as him earned $ 114,426.17 in 2019.
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The attacker had more than one weapon during the shooting, according to County Attorney Jeff Rosen.
It is not clear yet whether he obtained the weapons legally.
Neighbors in the area describe him as
a very quiet person
.
His ex-wife, Cecilia Nelms, described him like this in an interview with our sister network NBC News:
“He was very polite, quiet.
He was kind to people, but very distant.
He never really wanted to connect with anyone
. "
Emergency personnel respond to a shooting at a railroad authority facility in San Jose, California, on Wednesday, May 26, 2021.AP / Noah Berger
Nelms told The Associated Press (AP) news agency that
her ex-husband had talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago.
"I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now
," Nelms tearfully told the AP.
The woman recalls that Cassidy used to come home from work resentful and angry at what she considered to be unfair tasks.
She was married to him for about 10 years and they hadn't been in contact for about 13, Nelms told the outlet.
"He was not mentally stable"
An ex-girlfriend of Cassidy who asked to remain anonymous told NBC News that she believes he was
"not mentally stable."
She and Cassidy dated for six months in 2008 after meeting on Match.com.
After six months, he asked her to marry, she refused, and he didn't take it well.
"He was very angry, yelling and yelling
," she said.
"And then he started creating problems for me."
One day, not long after the breakup, she said that he stole her car, a 2008 Toyota Camry, of which she had the key.
She reported him to the police but nothing happened and a month later he returned the car, with the broken bumper and other damage.
In March 2009, he filed a restraining order against her, according to online court records.
According to her, he made up the claims.
She continued to file a restraining order against him.
The woman said she was surprised, though not entirely, when she learned that he was responsible for the shooting.
According to the AP agency, this ex-girlfriend described him as volatile and violent, with great mood swings due to a bipolar disorder that worsened when he drank excessively.
Multiple times while drunk, Cassidy forced her to have sex despite her refusal, the woman alleged in an affidavit filed in 2009 after Cassidy filed for a restraining order against her, according to documents obtained by the The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
What happened
At around 6:30 am (local time), the police received calls reporting shots being fired inside the VTA building.
“They found wounded people, they took them out, they kept running until they found the attacker who at that moment committed suicide,” said the spokeswoman for the San José Sheriff, Dalia Rodríguez.
Specialized teams searched the site for explosives.
Shortly before the shooting, the
attacker set his house on fire
.
The FBI found several containers with gasoline in his home, as well as ammunition.
The attack was the second shooting in Santa Clara County in less than two years.
And the
15th mass shooting so far this year
.
All of them have claimed at least four lives each, and a total of 86 deaths, according to a database compiled by AP, USA Today and Northeastern University.
With information from The Associated Press and NBC NEWS.
