The Santa Clara Sheriff's Office released police body camera video on Tuesday showing when their officers first confronted gunman Samuel Cassidy. The video below has been edited by the sheriff's office to block out the faces of the officers and to block out any gory images. When the officers approached and were about to confront Cassidy, a shot can be heard. That apparently was of Cassidy shooting himself. Cassidy's body is blurred when officers approach and discover him after he had killed himself.
The video shows officers initially confronting a VTA supervisor asking him to put his hands up. The man gave sheriff deputies his key card so they could access the rest of the building.
As previously reported, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's office reports that on Wednesday morning at approximately 6:34AM, dispatchers received a call of an active shooter at a Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) building located at 101 West Younger Avenue in San Jose.
In an updated press release Thursday afternoon, the Santa Clara Sheriff's Office Sheriff’s Office noted that detectives and FBI Investigators were on scene of the incident and processing evidence. On Thursday, the sheriff's office also released a surveillance video that shows Cassidy walking across the rail yard to kill more victims.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner released the identities of the victims 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).
During the early response of this incident, deputies and fire personnel were able to rescue one victim from the scene and immediately transport them to a local trauma center hospital for treatment. That victim, identified as Alex Fritch (49), died to his injuries and was pronounced deceased late Wednesday evening. All ten people who died, including the suspect, were VTA employees.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner identified the suspect as Samuel James Cassidy, 61. Sheriff’s Office Detectives says they located three semi-automatic handguns (9mm) at the scene, which included 32 individual high capacity handgun magazines loaded with additional ammunition. Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigators and the FBI Evidence Response Team are utilizing high tech equipment to document the crime scene to ensure a full and thorough investigation is completed, according to a statement released from Santa Clara County on Thursday.
Both Cassidy's ex-girlfriend and his ex-wife told reporters that Cassidy often complained about his job, his boss and coworkers. He ex-girlfriend filed a temporary restraining order against Cassidy in 2009 saying she was a victim of domestic violence.
United States Customs officials have come under criticism because they did not alert local authorities that they had detained Cassidy in 2016 when he was returning from the Philippines. He was found in possession of books on terrorism and writings on his deep hatred and anger about his job at the Vattley Transit Agency.
The body camera video released by the Santa Clara Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, shows officers reacting as they were trained. They calming but assertively took control of the building on Younger Avenue in San Jose before Cassidy had the chance to continue his rampage.