DHS must explain secrecy of report on mass shooter
As investigators tried to figure out why Sam Cassidy killed nine of his fellow VTA workers before taking his own life in the Bay Area’s deadliest mass shooting, the federal government withheld for five weeks a key 2016 report revealing his hate for the transit agency.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas needs to explain to officials here and the families of the people Cassidy gunned down why an agency he oversees failed to pass on the disturbing information to local law enforcement five years ago, what steps it is taking to make sure that such a breakdown doesn’t happen again, and why it balked at releasing the report after the May 26 rampage.
The five-page report from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection dates to Aug. 8, 2016, when Cassidy was detained at San Francisco International Airport for more than two hours as he was reentering the country after a trip to the Philippines. The detention was first reported by the Wall Street Journal the day after the massacre.
The account in the report focuses heavily on the purpose of his trip and the information he carried about how and where to find prostitutes in the Philippines. Because there was no evidence of pornography or sex involving underage people, they let him go.
But equally as disturbing are the other items found in Cassidy’s baggage: “Some books about terrorism and fear, and manifestos were found, and also a black memo book filled with lots of notes and how he hates the VTA.”
The memo book described his sexual encounters, tips about going through TSA and “dark thoughts about harming and vandalizing” two people whose names are redacted from the report. Agents asked if he had problems at work, and he said no. Questioned about the books, he stated, “Just curious.”
And that was essentially all that came of it. Even though there were repeated indications that Cassidy was not being truthful during the detention, and despite the seriousness of the evidence found, there was apparently no notification to local law enforcement or the VTA.
While the VTA knew that they had a disgruntled employee, and while federal authorities knew that he was carrying books about terrorism and writing about his hate for the agency, apparently nobody had both sets of information. Blame that on Customs and Border Protection.
Would the tragedy this year have been avoided if the federal agency had spoken up? We’ll never know. But there were steps that could have been taken if the information had been passed on to local law enforcement, including follow-up investigation, searching Cassidy’s house and, perhaps at least temporarily, seizing his weapons.
Knowing at the time exactly what was written in Cassidy’s notes about the VTA and what books he possessed, for example, might have steered a local law enforcement investigation that prevented the massacre.
In the days after the shooting, that information might have helped the law enforcement investigation and help the public understand who the killer was. And knowing now what was known then and examining what led to the breakdown in communication might avoid a future tragedy.
Which are some of the reasons why Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen on June 4 sought a copy of the 2016 report. Rosen finally got a copy on July 9.
“The ultimate person responsible for this is, of course, Cassidy,” Rosen points out. “However, we in law enforcement have to look at the aftermath of an incident and ask ourselves if there is anything better or different that we could have done so we can say in the future that we’ve done everything we can to prevent a mass shooting.”
On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security said that it was conducting a department-wide review to ensure its personnel have the tools and training to identify people prone to violence and to improve communication with other agencies. It’s long overdue.