Multiple casualties in San Jose rail yard shooting

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Police and sheriff's deputies responded to a shooting involving multiple fatalities in San Jose Wednesday morning at a Valley Transportation Authority yard north of downtown.

The incident involves multiple fatalities and multiple casualties, Santa Clara County sheriff's officials said, but they did not yet confirm how many.

Sheriff's officials said at about 8:10 a.m. the shooter was down.

In San Jose, violent crimes are up nearly 17% so far this year compared with the same time last year, according to police data. Homicides are up 75%.

The shooter is among the dead, Davis said.

The shooting was in the area of a VTA control center and rail yard, where light rail cars are stored. The building is not open to the public, so the shooter would have needed employee access or to have broken in, said VTA spokesperson Brandi Childress.

A public transit employee opened fire on co-workers at a Northern California rail yard on Wednesday, killing more than a half-dozen people before taking his own life, authorities said.

The shooter was identified as Samuel Cassidy, an employee of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), law enforcement sources said. He shot and killed himself at the scene, according to sources.

At least eight people were killed, not including the shooter, sheriff's Deputy Russell Davis said.

Even hours after the shooter died, a bomb squad was clearing the area in case the gunman left explosives behind.

“We received information that there are explosive devices that are located inside the building,” Davis told reporters at the scene. “ We’re trying to clear out every room, every crevice of that building.”

Davis called the shooting scene a VTA "control center" which is a "hub that stores multiple VTA trains and a maintenance yard as well."

The shooting happened "on the VTA light rail yard but it did not happen in the operations control center," VTA Board Chairman Glenn Hendricks said.