8 Victims of San Jose VTA Shooting Identified

Many were longtime employees of Valley Transportation Authority
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 27, 2021 12:42 AM CDT
8 Victims of San Jose VTA Shooting Identified
People embrace outside a staging area for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) workers, family members and officials following a shooting at one of the agency's rail yards on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, in San Jose, Calif.=   (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The eight victims of Wednesday morning's mass shooting at a San Jose, California, rail yard have been identified by the Santa Clara County coroner's office Wednesday night. Many of them were longtime employees of 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. It was at a VTA light rail facility that the 6:30am shooting took place. The victims are: Paul Delacruz Megia, 42; Taptejdeep Singh, 36; Adrian Balleza, 29; Jose Dejesus Hernandez, 35; Timothy Michael Romo, 49; Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40; Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63, and Lars Kepler Lane, 63.

Their jobs included bus and light rail operators, mechanics, linemen and assistant superintendent. One had worked for the transit authority since 1999. Singh had worked as a light rail train driver for eight or nine years and had a wife, two small children and many family members, said his cousin, Bagga Singh. The attacker was identified as 57-year-old Sam Cassidy, a VTA employee, according to two law enforcement officials. He took his own life as deputies closed in. Investigators offered no immediate word on a possible motive. His ex-wife, Cecilia Nelms, told the AP that Cassidy had a bad temper and would tell her that he wanted to kill people at work, “but I never believed him." As bomb squads searched the rail complex, officials were also investigating a house fire that broke out shortly before the shooting, Davis said. Public records show Cassidy owned the two-story home where firefighters responded after being notified by a passer-by.

(More San Jose stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X