At least 9 killed in San Jose shooting

By Melissa Macaya, Melissa Mahtani and Meg Wagner, CNN

Updated 6:59 p.m. ET, May 27, 2021
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8:55 a.m. ET, May 27, 2021

San Jose gunman had 2 semi-automatic weapons and 11 magazines on him, sheriff says

Philip Pacheco/Getty Images
Philip Pacheco/Getty Images

The man who killed nine co-workers at the light rail yard in San Jose, California, had two semi-automatic handguns and 11 magazines on him, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith tells CNN’s Josh Campbell.

“I don’t know if he re-loaded, I don’t know the number of rounds that he fired, but of the people who were injured, none survived,” Smith said. “They were handguns of the type that would be legal in California.”

During a sweep of the scene, bomb sniffing dogs alerted to the suspect’s locker and found “precursor things for explosives and so then there was the fire at his house and I know there was another bomb squad there looking at and I know they found additional rounds of ammo,” Smith said.

She said the precursor devices included detonation pulls and “a lot more” found at the house but could not go into detail on the materials found. “A coward like him could have been planning to use it,” she said. “I don’t know, with nine victims and my heart goes out to them, who knows what he’s thinking.”

The shooting happened during the beginning of a shift but she is not sure if reports about the gunman targeting people are accurate at this point in the investigation. “Yeah, I have heard those things, I haven’t heard them officially so I’m not sure that he targeted certain individuals but I have heard some words said," the sheriff noted.

Smith mentioned timing of the fire at the gunman’s home and the shooting at the workplace.

“We got the call of shots fired at 6:34, the fire department got the call at 6:37 so he — either someone else set the fire which I don’t believe. It’s my opinion that he had some kind of device in his house to go off simultaneously perhaps but we don’t know that for sure, " she said.

It is still unknown if the gunman left a note but nothing was found at the VTA facility. Investigators are serving search warrants for the gunman’s car, house, phones, and social media to try to piece together a motive.

The shooter turned the gun on himself after opening fire on coworkers at the light rail yard early Wednesday.

All of the victims’ bodies have been removed from the scene. Smith says some sheriff’s office employees are related to victims.

9:03 a.m. ET, May 27, 2021

The 9 victims of the mass shooting in San Jose have been identified 

From CNN's Madeline Holcombe

Mourners place candles at a vigil following the mass shooting at the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light-rail yard, outside City Hall on May 26, 2021 in San Jose, California.
Mourners place candles at a vigil following the mass shooting at the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light-rail yard, outside City Hall on May 26, 2021 in San Jose, California. Philip Pacheco/Getty Images

The nine victims of a mass shooting in San Jose on Wednesday have been identified as investigators begin the process of figuring out why such a fierce burst of violence happened during the early morning hours at a light rail yard.

Eight of the victims, who ranged from ages 29 to 63, were identified Wednesday by the Santa Clara County office of the Medical Examiner-Coroner 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; and Lars Kepler Lane, 63.

A ninth victim, Alex Ward Fritch, age 49, was transported to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in critical condition and died Wednesday evening, the coroner's office said.

They will be honored Thursday night at an event at the San Jose City Hall Plaza.

Among the victims were the gunman's coworkers at the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). The VTA is a public transit service that operates bus and light rail services in the Santa Clara Valley and employs about 2,000 workers.

8:25 a.m. ET, May 27, 2021

Eyewitness says San Jose shooter targeted specific victims

Kirk Bertolet, who has worked for the Valley Transportation Authority for 12 years and currently works as a light rail signal maintainer, said he knew the shooter, Sam Cassidy, and told CNN affiliate KGO that he was surprised to learn Cassidy was the shooter.

Bertolet says that Cassidy did not fire indiscriminately but targeted his victims. 

“I do know that he had a specific agenda and was targeting certain people. He walked by other people. He let other people live as he gunned down other people,” Bertolet said. 

Bertolet told CNN affiliate KGO that he was in the office next to the break room, where workers had gathered for a shift change when the gunfire occurred on Wednesday.

“It was several bursts. Was a series of shots and then another series of shots,” Bertolet told KGO.

Bertolet says he went in to help provide first aid.    

“I saw a couple people as I walked in, and then I just saw a mass of bodies. I went to check to see if anybody was alive if I could do anything for anybody, and watched people take their last breath,” Bertolet said.