$8 million settlement in San Jose rail yard shooting

Families of most of the victims killed last year in a mass shooting at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard in San Jose have reached a settlement in their damage claims against the company, the agency announced.

The agreement was reached with relatives of eight of the nine people shot to death at the rail facility on May 26, 2021, by a colleague who then killed himself. The families will receive $8 million to settle claims they filed last November, the Mercury News reported.

Family members said they have still been given no reasons why shooter Sam Cassidy, who was the subject of four investigations into his workplace conduct, was kept on the job long enough to carry out his mayhem. Investigations by both the Santa Clara Sheriff ’s Office and VTA have produced no publicly revealed results, according to the Associated Press.

The shooting erupted around 6:30 a.m. at a light rail facility at 101 W. Younger Ave. where vehicles are dispatched and workers do repairs and maintenance. Police responded to 911 calls in about eight minutes, but by the time they located the killer inside one of the buildings he had fatally shot himself.

The victims of the shooting were: Paul Delacruz Megia, Taptejdeep Singh, Adrian Balleza, Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, Timothy Michael Romo, Michael Joseph Rudometkin, Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, Lars Kepler Lane and Alex Ward Fritch.

Lane’s family members have not settled with the VTA, according to the Associated Press. Their attorney, Daniel Schaar, said they “did not feel that the offer made to the Lane family was sufficient.”