Lonely, full of hate and selective when it comes to killing: the profile of the perpetrator of the massacre in San José
Samuel James Cassidy, the perpetrator of the latest massacre in the United States that left nine dead, had already been arrested five years ago. Then, the authorities found in his house books and manifestos about terrorism, in addition to notebooks with notes about an intense hatred towards his place of work, the municipal transportation authority of Santa Clara County, in California, known by its acronym in English, the VTA. Even so, five years later he was able to take out his anger on a handful of colleagues and carry out a massacre before taking his own life when the police officers jumped out at him..
Cassidy, 57, was a lonely guy with no known friends at work after eight years on the job.. According to his ex-girlfriend, who accused him of sexual abuse in 2009, he suffered from bipolar disorder and alcohol problems.. In his house, which he set on fire just at the moment he was involved in the shooting, they later found an entire arsenal: 12 firearms, 25,000 rounds of ammunition, Molotov cocktails and several cans of gasoline, enough to carry out a plan that believe they had meticulously concocted.
“It is clear this was planned and the suspect was prepared to use his firearms to take as many lives as possible had sheriff's deputies not gone in to stop his onslaught,” the spokesman said. Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, Russell Davis.
Of course, Cassidy was selective when it came to deciding who he killed and who he left alive. Upon entering the San José train yard where he worked, he ignored the presence of some colleagues before entering one of the buildings and starting to kill.. “He had a list of people he wanted to kill,” said Kirk Bertolet, one of the witnesses to the massacre.. “He walked calmly past people leaving the building before going inside and meeting his targets”.
They were all VTA employees, ages 29 to 63, all men, meeting at 6:30 a.m., a time when some were ending their shift and others were just starting the day.. Eight of them died on the spot.. The ninth, at the Santa Clara Valley Hospital in Northern California. His name was Alex Ward Fritch and he was 49 years old..
Cecilia Nelms, Cassidy's ex-wife, told the Associated Press agency that ten years ago she talked to her about committing a similar massacre.. “I never believed him. And it had never happened, until now,” he said.. In the background, a disciplinary file that he was facing at work and that could have triggered the tragedy, a coup forged for years, accumulating illegal weapons in California and even explosive devices to make the massacre even greater.. One more in a country plagued by solitary and unbalanced beings with a weapons license and a thirst for revenge.