Families of VTA Shooting Victims Sue Transit Agency for Failing to Stop Gunman

This report contains a correction.

One year after an employee shot and killed nine co-workers in a rampage at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in San José, the families of at least eight of the victims filed lawsuits Thursday alleging negligence and wrongful death by the VTA, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office and a private security firm in failing to address the gunman's history of violent threats or provide adequate security.

Samuel James Cassidy, 57, shot nine men one by one inside the rail yard after he arrived for work on May 26, 2021, with three 9 mm handguns and 32 high-capacity magazines. He fired a total of 39 bullets, killing all nine workers before he turned the gun on himself as deputies closed in.

The agency later released more than 200 pages of emails and other documents that showed Cassidy was the subject of four investigations into his workplace conduct and that, after one verbal altercation, a colleague worried that Cassidy could “go postal.”

The transit agency “knew, and had experienced, Cassidy’s repeated pattern of insubordination. They were also aware of numerous verbal altercations Cassidy had with coworkers on at least four separate occasions, in which SCVTA failed to adequately investigate and/or discipline Cassidy for any of these separate incidents,” said one of the lawsuits, filed by the family of Lars Kepler Lane, 63, who had worked at the VTA since 2001 and had three children.

In two separate suits, the families of victims Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63; Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, 35; Timothy Romo, 49; Alex Fritch, 49; Paul Delacruz Megia, 42; Michael Rudometkin, 40; and Taptejdeep Singh, 36, similarly allege that VTA failed to carry out proper security and risk mitigation measures that could have prevented the attack.

"We’re living in a time where we’re not safe as Americans," said Nick Rowley, attorney for the Lane family and co-founder of Trial Lawyers for Justice. "Our children aren’t safe in their schools. Our loved ones aren’t safe at work. These are scary times. It’s not going on in other countries. This is an American problem."

After the shooting, co-workers described Cassidy as an outsider who did not talk to others or fit in. His ex-wife told The Associated Press that Cassidy used to come home from work resentful and angry over what he perceived as unfair assignments more than a decade before and had even talked about killing people at work.

"Many politicians have vowed to do nothing. So it then becomes the responsibility of the citizens, the people, to do something," said Rowley. "The civil lawsuit is really the only vehicle left where regular, ordinary people can call out and hold the power structure responsible for things like this and get their attention and impose a consequence that results in change."

The lawsuits, filed in Santa Clara Superior Court, also name the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and Universal Protection Service, both of which were contracted with the VTA to provide security at the facility.

The VTA, sheriff’s office, and Allied Universal, the parent company of Universal Protection Service, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Under California law, defendants can require that employees injured on the job, or the family of employees killed on the job, file a workers' compensation claim, but the lawsuit argues that the VTA shooting doesn't apply because of the employer's “intentional and outrageous misconduct.”

Workers' compensation “doesn’t include getting shot in a mass shooting. In this case the defendants had an obligation to provide security,” said Rowley. “It wasn’t just inadequate, they had no actual trained security officers or policies or procedures in place. This was preventable.”

Rowley said as mass shootings continue to occur but officials make few changes to protect the public, "this is really the only way to make substantive change at this point."

Cassidy had stockpiled weapons and 25,000 rounds of ammunition at his house before setting it on fire to coincide with the bloodshed at the workplace.

May 27: The original version of this story noted only one lawsuit filed against VTA, by the family of Lars Kepler Lane. At least two additional lawsuits also were filed on behalf of the families of Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, Timothy Romo, Alex Fritch, Paul Delacruz Megia, Michael Rudometkin and Taptejdeep Singh. The story has been edited to correct that omission.

KQED's Sara Hossaini contributed reporting to this story.