Investigators have found Molotov cocktails, cans of gasoline, a dozen firearms and about 22,000 rounds of ammunition in the San Jose home of a man who shot and killed nine of his Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority co-workers and then killed himself on Wednesday, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office announced Friday afternoon.
Local and federal authorities have been at the Angmar Court home of Samuel Cassidy, 57, after it started on fire around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, the same time Cassidy then went to a VTA light-rail maintenance facility on West Younger Avenue in San Jose with multiple firearms and committed what ended up being the deadliest mass shooting in Bay Area history, sheriff's officials said.
Bomb squads initially on Wednesday thought Cassidy may have brought explosives to the VTA facility, but searched the property and did not find any there.
However, at his home where the fire was reported, investigators found the gasoline cans, Molotov cocktails, firearms and ammunition, and sheriff's officials said they believe the fire was started to destroy the home.
The sheriff's office has described Cassidy as a "highly disgruntled VTA employee for many years" but has not identified a specific motive for the mass shooting.
The nine people killed by Cassidy have been identified as Paul Delacruz Megia, 42; Taptejdeep Singh, 36; Adrian Balleza, 29; Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, 35; Timothy Michael Romo, 49; Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40; Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63; Lars Kepler Lane, 63; and Alex Ward Fritch, 49.
Comments
Registered user
Downtown North
on May 28, 2021 at 4:50 pm
Registered user
on May 28, 2021 at 4:50 pm
That is a lot of ammo and the Molotov Cocktails raise a question as to what was their intended use.
It is fortunate that the fire department was able to extinguish the fire before the entire house went up in flames.
Otherwise, all of those explosives catching fire along with the hot bullets would have endangered the entire neighborhood as well as the lives of the firefighters.
There are a lot of troubled people with massive armories at home and there is absolutely no way to prevent this unless the 2nd Amendment is repealed and that is not going to happen anytime soon.
The Constitutional 'originalists' on the current SCOTUS bench will protect a citizen's right to own (aka bear) firearms regardless of the intended use or massive firepower and more people will be tragically killed along the way.
Most of the victims will be forgotten (except by their immediate family and close friends) and the evening news will simply continue reporting the lastest mass shooting incident.
Registered user
Fairmeadow
on May 29, 2021 at 8:11 am
Registered user
on May 29, 2021 at 8:11 am
California has a red flag law, allowing guns and ammo to be confiscated if family or coworkers report a threat. We need to be a lot more aggressive about using it.
Registered user
Professorville
on May 29, 2021 at 9:10 am
Registered user
on May 29, 2021 at 9:10 am
How enormously sad and horribly troubling this whole situation is. Why do we have so many guns, and when will people realize we cannot go on this way?
So many good lives cut short, and so many partners and family deeply hurt.
We must have billions of guns in our country. For what purpose?
Human beings are emotional, and strong emotions may even make the most stable humans irrational and dangerous to themselves and others.
Please, God, spread your arms around the families of the workers killed in this violent happening and others that have happened in the past and will happen in the future, and give courage to the people who want to stand up and prevent these heart wrenching miseries from happening again.
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on May 29, 2021 at 9:21 am
Registered user
on May 29, 2021 at 9:21 am
"Human beings are emotional, and strong emotions may even make the most stable humans irrational and dangerous to themselves and others."
According to the news, the shooter was not the most 'stable' of individuals but with 'strong emotions' bordering on racist.
Registered user
Professorville
on May 29, 2021 at 10:56 am
Registered user
on May 29, 2021 at 10:56 am
I know that this individual was very unstable and very angry, but that was not the point of my comment.
Often times, I read comments that people not guns are responsible for gun deaths, hence my writing "that EVEN the most stable...."
However, I believe that guns do make it so much easier to cause gun deaths.
Registered user
Professorville
on May 30, 2021 at 7:39 am
Registered user
on May 30, 2021 at 7:39 am
Guns, guns, guns..... Two more mass shootings in Florida! When will we wake up?
Registered user
Professorville
on May 30, 2021 at 7:49 am
Registered user
on May 30, 2021 at 7:49 am
We need to go to the origin of the gun issue:
Web Link
Registered user
Community Center
on May 30, 2021 at 11:34 am
Registered user
on May 30, 2021 at 11:34 am
Open carry as opposed to concealed firearms should be allowed in all states.
Then people would think first before threatening somebody, either verbally or physically.
Registered user
Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 31, 2021 at 12:16 pm
Registered user
on May 31, 2021 at 12:16 pm
"While gun sales have been climbing for decades — they often spike in election years and after high-profile crimes — Americans have been on an unusual, prolonged buying spree fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, the protests last summer and the fears they both stoked."
The above is a quote from yesterday's New York Times. Also stated was a fact that background checks for purchases in one week topped 1.2 million this spring. The highest since records began being kept.
The trend is clear, many Americans are bracing for violence and many believe they will be on their own. Moderates are gunning up. Thank our politics and leaders who we elect and their decisive policies. Some are concerned for the Right, others for the Left. The way things are going it may not be long before individuals begin to believe they must use force against those who they perceive to threaten their way of life rather than their lives themselves and resort to deadly force against legislators, developers, neighbors and anyone else who gets under their skin.
Somehow our country must get a grip and cool things off. It is not so much guns as the heated emotions that are the root cause. Social media, hyper partisan media outlets, politicians with single minded agendas all contribute. Somehow these need to be delt with-gun control will never do it and is unlikely to happen.
Wish I could be more optimistic.
Registered user
Duveneck/St. Francis
on May 31, 2021 at 1:43 pm
Registered user
on May 31, 2021 at 1:43 pm
[Post removed.]