SAN JOSE — The troubling behavior of a Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority maintenance worker who gunned down nine co-workers then himself at a San Jose railyard last year was not severe enough for the agency to discipline or fire him, according to a VTA-commissioned probe into the Bay Area’s worst-ever mass shooting.
On Monday, the transit agency disclosed the findings of an investigation by the San Francisco-based law firm Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, which the VTA Board of Directors hired to probe whether managers and administrators had been given clear red flags about Samuel Cassidy’s murderous intentions, and could have taken steps to protect the workforce.
In the early morning hours of May 26, 2021, Cassidy attended a work meeting and then methodically stalked through the Younger Avenue light-rail depot, selectively shooting co-workers while passing others before he shot himself as sheriff’s deputies and San Jose police officers approached.
