Shooter’s former wife: ‘When he was mad, he was mad’
SAN JOSE » The Valley Transportation Authority employee suspected of torching his home before opening fire at a VTA light rail yard, killing eight people and then taking his own life, “had two sides” to him, the man’s ex-wife told the Bay Area News Group on Wednesday.
Multiple sources have identified the shooter as Samuel Cassidy, a 57-year-old VTA employee. Cassidy’s San Jose home caught fire early Wednesday; a passerby reported the blaze just after the first calls came in about a shooting at the West Younger Avenue rail yard.
Bomb technicians were later seen entering Cassidy’s home to search for explosives. Officials also said that explosive-sniffing dogs had signaled that bombs may have been placed inside VTA buildings, which prompted an evacuation and search.
With nine people dead, including the gunman, it was the worst mass shooting in the Bay Area since a 1993 shooting at a San Francisco law firm. Eight people
and the gunman also died in that incident. (See story, A2)
“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.”
An ex-girlfriend in a 2009 court filing accused Cassidy of rape, sexual assault and “enraged” mood swings fueled by alcohol abuse.
Nelms, 64, was married to Cassidy for about 10 years, she said. Court records show the couple filed for divorce in 2005. Cassidy worked as a mechanic at a San Jose car dealership for the first two years of their
marriage and then went to work for the VTA.
He often spoke angrily about his co-workers and bosses, and at times directed his anger at her, Nelms said. 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, said Nelms, who said she had not been in touch with her ex-husband for about 13 years.
“He just thought that some people got more easygoing things at work, and he’d get the harder jobs,” she said.
Years after the divorce in 2009, an ex-girlfriend described Cassidy as a violent person who tried to force her into sexual acts.
“Several times during
the relationship he became intoxicated, enraged and forced himself on me sexually,” the woman wrote in a sworn declaration, which is part of a domestic violence restraining order filed in Santa Clara County. 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.”
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 told a reporter from inside his house, “I’m not talking to the press.”
At the VTA, Cassidy worked as a substation
maintainer and mechanic, according to Transparent California, which listed his 2019 total pay and benefits as $160,508. Public records show in 2003 he got a license as a smog check inspector and used to work at a San Jose Mazda dealership.
On Wednesday morning, a passerby called San Jose fire dispatch at about 6:36 a.m. to report a fire at a home on Angmar Court in South San Jose. When firefighters arrived, the house was engulfed in heavy flames, fire Battalion Chief Jeff Fielding said.
It took about an hour for firefighters to bring the blaze under control, and they determined no one was home. A couple of hours later, as San Jose police conspicuously kept the scene cordoned off, firefighters returned to put out
parts of the house that were still smoldering.
Over the course of the morning, local police were joined by agents with the FBI and ATF. An FBI bomb tech could be seen on site, and an SJPD bomb squad also examined the home. The search was handled slowly and meticulously, given that explosives were reportedly found at the railyard shooting site.
Even as the law-enforcement presence grew, and it became clear that the home belonged to Cassidy, the scene remained calm as it appeared that agents and officers were settling in for a long operation.
Nelms said she never knew Cassidy to have guns, and struggled to connect the man she knew with commission of a mass shooting.