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.
The central conclusion of the investigation is certain to be met with objection from the families of the nine victims and VTA workers who claimed in the preceding weeks and months that Cassidy had become belligerent and stoked fears that he would become violent. That stance — which included allegations that the agency ignored a toxic work culture and dysfunctional management that may have put the shooter “over the edge” — is the basis of a lawsuit filed by several of the grieving families, which led to an $8 million settlement reached last month.
The same law firm which conducted the VTA-commissioned investigation was also hired to represent the agency in negotiations to settle that lawsuit. But Liebert Cassidy Whitmore stated in a letter to the VTA board that investigators none of the 47 witnesses it interviewed for the report released Monday were family members’ of the victims set to receive the $8 million settlement.
Cassidy was said to have had “unpleasant interactions” with coworkers and vocally complained about his work conditions. He was the subject of five misconduct writeups during his time as a maintenance worker. One complaint voiced a fear that Cassidy was going to “go postal.” But by and large, the misconduct officially documented in Cassidy’s personnel record described defiance to attending training, following orders, and making “unacceptable statements” over radio channels, the law firm stated in a six-page letter to the VTA board.
The investigation publicized Monday also mentioned how Cassidy was detained by the Department of Homeland Security in 2016 as he returned from a trip to the Philippines, during which agents found a black memo book containing notes about how he hated the the VTA. That led to complaints, including from the district attorney, about how that detainment should have been communicated to local authorities so that they could have had a chance to intervene with Cassidy.
The mass shooting left the agency struggling to restore transit service and rebuild trust between management, a traumatized workforce and the agency’s main union. While the VTA has worked to hire a consultant to revamp the workplace, the agency and its main union sparred over vaccine mandates, and a bus driver was recently forced to retire after allegedly threatening “some shooting” in June.
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