Santa Clara County Sheriff's officials on Tuesday released startling body camera footage from deputies responding to last week's Valley Transit Authority mass shooting in San Jose.
Graphic warning: This video may not be suitable for some viewers.
The clip shows two Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies and three San Jose Police officers arrive on the scene and enter the VTA Guadalupe light rail yard building. Gunshots from the suspect can be heard in the distance as officers inside the building.
Much of the carnage is blurred out.
Near the end of the video, officers locate the suspect who is seen on a chair, wearing a blue jacket, hunched over and holding a weapon. He was incapacitated, presumably after he fatally shot himself.
"I think it’s a tribute to all law enforcement in Santa Clara County that we’ve trained together. You saw how the Sheriff’s Office in San Jose worked as a team, without any words," Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said during a briefing Tuesday night. "We felt it was important to show the public the bravery of our law enforcement officers in confronting someone they know is shooting people."
"I thought it was important to show that this protocol, I believe, saved lives," she added.
The suspect, 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, killed nine people and himself last Wednesday in what’s believed to be the Bay Area’s worst mass shooting. While Cassidy is believed to have disliked his workplace, he did not leave a note explaining his motive and set his own house on fire.
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