Gunman Told One Person: 'I'm Not Going to Shoot You'

A California sheriff says a gunman who killed nine people in a rail yard massacre fired 39 shots and appeared to target some of the victims. Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith told the AP on Thursday that the shooter told at least one person: “I’m not going to shoot you” at a light rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose. The gunman then shot other people with two semi-automatic handguns. He later shot himself as deputies closed in. Smith said in an interview that the shooter also appeared to have set a timer or slow-burn device to set his home on fire. The fire was reported minutes after the first 911 calls came in from the rail facility.

The attacker, identified in news reports as 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, “was very deliberate, very fast," Smith told NBC’s Today show on Thursday. "He knew where employees would be." The shooter had two semiautomatic handguns and 11 loaded magazines, Smith said. A locker at the rail yard believed to be the gunman’s contained “materials for bombs, detonator cords, the precursors to an explosive,” the sheriff said. Investigators offered no immediate word on a possible motive, but his ex-wife said he used to come home from work resentful and angry over what he perceived as unfair assignments.

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