Border patrol: VTA shooter had 'dark thoughts about harming' two people

Hate for employer emerged as federal agents grilled Sam Cassidy about sex tourism after 2016 trip to Philippines


SAN JOSE — The disgruntled VTA mechanic who gunned down nine coworkers in May harbored “dark thoughts about harming” two specific people, according to new details from a San Francisco airport encounter with customs agents when returning from the Philippines in 2016.

The two names were redacted from the report released Wednesday by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection after a Freedom of Information Act request from the Bay Area News Group, so it’s unclear if they were among the shooting victims or connected to the Valley Transportation Authority, where seven weeks ago Sam Cassidy carried out the deadliest mass shooting in Bay Area history.

But the report raises new questions about why federal customs agents appear to have never informed the VTA or local law enforcement just 35 miles away about what the agency labeled a “Significant Encounter” with Cassidy, whose personnel file indicated an escalating pattern of conflicts and confrontations with coworkers in the years before his May 26 rampage.

Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen said Wednesday that he had received a copy of the redacted report last week.

Read more: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07/14/border-patrol-vta-shooter-had-dark-thoughts-about-harming-and-vandalizing-two-people/