SAN JOSE — Samuel James Cassidy, a Valley Transportation Authority maintenance worker, walked out of his South San Jose home early Wednesday, a black bag in hand.
Surveillance footage from a neighbor’s home shows him wearing what appears to be a work outfit, reflective tape on his torso, arms and legs as he unlocks his white truck, tosses the bag in and drives out of Angmar Court.
Less than an hour later, firefighters were on the scene at his blazing home. At almost the same time, at a VTA rail yard miles away, Cassidy shot eight of his co-workers dead, then killed himself.
Authorities have not said what might have led to the rampage or what type of weapon was used in one of the deadliest mass shootings in Bay Area history. As the FBI and local authorities dig into his background, his ex-wife, neighbors and court records painted a picture of a man with a violent and unpredictable temper who often complained about being mistreated at work.
In a 2009 court filing, an ex-girlfriend accused him of rape, sexual assault and “enraged” mood swings fueled by alcohol use.
“He had two sides,” Cassidy’s ex-wife, Cecilia Nelms, said outside her home Wednesday. “When he was in a good mood, he was a great guy. When he was mad, he was mad.”
A relative of Cassidy’s who answered her door Wednesday afternoon declined to comment and said she had to go take care of his parents. His father later told a reporter from inside his house, “I’m not talking to the press.”
Neighbor Doug Suh described Cassidy as a “lonely guy.” Since moving to Angmar Court five years ago, Suh said he never saw any friends or family visiting Cassidy.
“I’d say hello and he’d just look at me without saying anything,” Suh said. “One day I was (crossing over his driveway while I backed out) and he yelled at me, ‘Don’t even go on my driveway!’ After that I never talked to him again.”
Suh’s home surveillance camera captured the 57-year-old leaving his home. The time-stamped footage reviewed by a Bay Area News Group reporter shows Cassidy heading out at about 5:39 a.m.
At about 6:36 a.m., a passerby called San Jose fire dispatch to report that Cassidy’s home was on fire. When firefighters arrived, the house was engulfed in flames, fire Battalion Chief Jeff Fielding said.
The single-alarm blaze was reported just after the first calls came in about a shooting at the West Younger Avenue rail yard. Eight of Cassidy’s co-workers were killed; authorities had not released their names as of press time Wednesday.
Officials were concerned about dangerous items that may have been brought in by Cassidy: Bomb-sniffing dogs signaled to handlers that an explosive device may have been placed inside a VTA building, leading to a lockdown and search. A Santa Clara County Sheriff’s statement issued Wednesday afternoon said only that “several possible suspicious devices” had been located on the property and that bomb squad personnel had “rendered the scene safe.”
Officers and agents searching Cassidy’s home later Wednesday found weapons and a large amount of ammunition, sources told the Bay Area News Group. Explosive-sniffing dogs were also used at the house.
Cassidy, a longtime San Jose resident, worked as a substation maintainer and previously as a mechanic for VTA. Before joining the transit agency about 20 years ago, he was a mechanic at a San Jose Mazda dealership.
Over their 10-year marriage, Nelms said, Cassidy spoke angrily about his co-workers and bosses and at times directed his anger at her. When Cassidy was at the VTA during their marriage, he resented what he saw as unfair work assignments, she said, and would rant about his job when he got home. The couple divorced in 2005 and haven’t spoken in 13 years, she said.
“He just thought that some people got more easy-going things at work, and he’d get the harder jobs,” she said.
Nelms said she never knew Cassidy to have guns and struggled to connect the man she knew with Wednesday’s tragedy.
But an ex-girlfriend described Cassidy as a violent person who tried to force her into sexual acts in 2009.
“Several times during the relationship he became intoxicated, enraged and forced himself on me sexually,” the woman wrote in a sworn declaration. The Bay Area News Group does not name survivors of sexual abuse without their permission. On occasions where she refused him, the woman wrote, he “restrained me by holding my arms to my side and forcing his weight on top of me.”
The volatile relationship lasted about a year. The woman, who was 45 at the time, detailed the allegations in response to a domestic violence restraining order Cassidy had filed against her, alleging harassment.
“Each time I refused and was able to fight off his advances,” she wrote. “Afterwards, he would apologize for his behavior and promise it would not happen again.”
Kate Selig contributed reporting.
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