SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – An independent investigation into the mass shooting at the San Jose VTA rail yard in 2021 has cleared the transit agency of any wrongdoing.
The investigation, conducted by San Francisco law firm Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, found that Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority could not have stopped the mass shooting as the agency did not have sufficient evidence that the event would occur.
In May of 2021, VTA maintenance worker Samuel Cassidy opened fire at a work meeting, killing nine people. Several of the victims' families sued VTA, claiming that the agency ignored numerous red flags about the shooter.
VTA settled the suit for $8 million. However, on Monday, an independent investigation concluded that Cassidy was angry and he did berate fellow employees, but not to the level that VTA would have thought he would open fire and kill people.
"He did not issue any threats, he did not say I'm going to do something to somebody either in writing or verbally and because of that it's very difficult to do something," Jim Lawson, chief of external affairs for Valley Transportation Authority, told KCBS Radio.
According to Lawson, the investigative report took a long time because it was difficult to interview witnesses. Many of the witnesses were so traumatized by the shooting that they refused to speak with the investigator.
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