Hero Emerges as San Jose Shooting Claims Another Life

9th victim died in the hospital Wednesday evening
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 27, 2021 8:25 AM CDT
Hero Emerges as San Jose Shooting Claims Another Life
Two people hug on Younger Avenue outside the scene of a shooting in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday.   (Randy Vazquez/Bay Area News Group via AP)

Wednesday's mass shooting in San Jose, Calif.—the 232nd in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive—has claimed another life. Alex Ward Fritch, 49, who was initially taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in critical condition, died Wednesday evening, bringing the total number of dead to 10, including the shooter, per CNN. The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office had identified the other eight victims reportedly killed within two buildings at the Valley Transportation Authority rail yard earlier Wednesday, per the AP. One of them, Taptejdeep Singh, a 36-year-old father of two, is described as a hero, per CBS San Francisco. He reportedly protected a coworker from the gunman by pushing her into a room, and also warned others. All nine victims will be honored at San Jose City Hall Plaza on Thursday evening.

The shooter is identified as Samual Cassidy, 57, an employee since at least 2012, who took his own life as deputies closed in. His ex-wife, who hadn't spoken with Cassidy in more than a decade, said he previously spoke about wanting to kill his coworkers. He "resented what he saw as unfair work assignments" at the time, she added, per CNN. Surveillance video shows a man with a duffel bag leaving Cassidy's home around 5:40am. A fire was reported at the home (though no one was inside) shortly after 6:30am, around the same time shots were fired in the rail yard, while employees from overnight and day shifts were present. "The victims and all the colleagues knew the shooter well," Mayor Sam Liccardo says, per CNN. At a press conference, District Attorney Jeff Rosen said multiple guns were used. He described them as untraceable "ghost guns." (More San Jose stories.)

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