A San Jose gunman, Samuel Cassidy, killed nine employees of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) on Wednesday. Cassidy was a maintenance worker who had worked for nine years at the VTA, and he was to attend a disciplinary hearing on alleged racist remarks the day he gunned down his co-workers, Fox News reports.
Police authorities said Cassidy seemed to have been dissatisfied at his workplace for many years, and his former wife said he confessed more than 10 years ago that he would kill some people at his workplace one day.
The authorities believe he intentionally targeted his fellow employees because of his grouse at his workplace, and maybe because he was to face a disciplinary committee in a session that may determine his employment status at the VTA.
Although three 9 mm handguns and several loaded magazines were found at the scene of the crime, police investigators also found 12 firearms and nearly 22,000 rounds of ammunition as well as many cans of gasoline and Molotov cocktails in Cassidy’s home before it was razed down.
Investigators believe the large cache of weapons and ammunition in Cassidy’s home indicated that he had been planning the crime for a long time before he carried it out. They also believe the destruction of the house by fire was timed to coincide with the actual time of killing his victims.
In 2016, US customs and border officials arrested Cassidy when he entered the country from the Philippines. In his possession were several notes that indicated terrorism and his hatred for the VTA. A Department of Homeland Security memo said officials also searched his luggage and emails and found proofs that the man was full of hatred.
His apparent dissatisfaction at work, his inflammatory writings, and the fact that he allegedly boasted of stocking guns and ammunition seemed to be part of the reasons for the disciplinary hearing he was to attend on Wednesday evening. But he chose to kill his colleagues that same Wednesday morning.
California Gov. Gavin News condemned the killing, saying people should cease to resort to violence in dealing with any issues.
“The hell’s wrong with us?” Gov. Gavin News said. “And when are we going to come to grips with this? When are we going to put down our arms — literally and figuratively — our politics, stale rhetoric, finger-pointing, all the hand-wringing, consternation that produces nothing except more fury and frustration…over and over again?”
Source: thehill.com