Could we have thwarted VTA mass shooting?
The Department of Homeland Security has some explaining to do.
It’s outrageous that the DHS failed to notify local law enforcement officials in 2016 that customs agents reportedly found terrorist literature and notes detailing Samuel Cassidy’s hatred for the Valley Transportation Agency.
The federal agency’s refusal to respond to repeated requests for comment last week is also unacceptable.
The DHS must come clean on why Cassidy was detained when he was returning from the Philippines, what the agency found and what actions customs agents took — and failed to take — after their discovery.
And, equally important, what will the DHS do moving forward when discovering information that is vital for local law enforcement officials to know?
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said Thursday that the 57-yearold VTA mechanic was virtually unknown to local law enforcement until he opened fire on his colleagues May 26, killing nine people in the deadliest mass shooting in Bay Area history.
Nine people are dead. Nothing will bring them back to their families and loved ones. But they and Bay Area residents have the right to know why the DHS information wasn’t shared with the San Jose Police Department or Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
This tragic case is precisely why California adopted its “red flag” law in 2014. The law took effect Jan. 1, 2016, prior to the federal agency’s encounter with Cassidy.
The evidence unearthed by the customs agents may have given local authorities enough information to ward off the mass shooting.
The law came about after a tragedy near UC Santa Barbara in which six people were killed and 14 were injured. In that attack, a 22-year-old man shot, stabbed and hit people with a car before killing himself.
The law gives law enforcement officials the ability to remove firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or to others. Officials can hold guns for 21 days or for up to five years after a court hearing.
In Santa Clara County, judges removed firearms in 122 cases in 2019, up from seven in 2016. In some cases, judges return the guns to people who are not deemed to be a threat.
Local officials say they have used the law to thwart potential threats, including several people who hinted at workplace shootings.
Rosen is right when he says that the information customs agents found — particularly Cassidy’s comments about his hatred for the VTA — should have been enough to warrant a heads-up to local law enforcement agencies.
That would have given officers a chance to interview Cassidy and acquire information that might have tipped them off that he was planning a mass shooting.
But they can’t act on what they don’t know.