Horrific Texas school massacre comes just 2 days before VTA shooting anniversary
SAN JOSE -- Two days before the first anniversary of a mass shooting at a transit center in San Jose, another mass shooting -- this one Tuesday at a Texas elementary school that ended the lives of 21 people -- is capturing the attention and aggravation of local officials.
A vigil is scheduled Wednesday in Foster City at 7:30 p.m. at the Foster City Recreation Center gazebo in Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park at 650 Shell Blvd.
The event is organized by the Bay Area chapter of Brady: United Against Gun Violence. Organizers say battery operated candles will be provided.
Local officials know the routine well. Several issued statements Tuesday on the latest mass shooting, while others in San Jose prepare to mark an ominous anniversary.
On May 26, 2021, an employee of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority shot and killed nine people at a VTA maintenance yard in San Jose and then shot himself.
57-year-old Samuel James Cassidy began his murder spree that morning. Cassidy shot and killed 9 of his coworkers before turning the gun on himself as Sheriff's deputies and police closed in on him.
The victims, who ranged in age from 29 to 63 years old, were all VTA employees.
Survivors said Cassidy picked and chose his victims, letting some walk free, and shooting down others.
Fast forward 363 days to Tuesday, when 19 schoolchildren and two adults were shot and killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Ten days before that, a racist attack at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y., killed 10 people.
In the 10 days between that mass shooting and Tuesday's in Texas, there were 14 mass shootings in the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive group, which defines a mass shooting in which four or more people are killed or injured.
"Across the nation, Americans are filled with righteous fury in the wake of multiple incomprehensible mass shootings in the span of just days," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California. "This a crisis of existential proportions - for our children and for every American. For too long, some in Congress have offered hollow words after these shootings while opposing all efforts to save lives. It is time for all in Congress to heed the will of the American people and join in enacting the House-passed bipartisan, commonsense, life-saving legislation into law."
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, shared his exasperation in a statement issued from his office.
"When will enough be enough?" he asked. "Thoughts and prayers are not enough, and gutless politicians that have opposed life-saving measures in the past must step up and help us end gun violence."
California Attorney General Rob Bonta called it a dark day, in a statement released by his office.
"I wish that in our nation we could say that a day like today is rare. Sadly, it is all too familiar. The fact is, too many people are killed by gun violence in America."
Bonta pledged to continue calling on officials from the federal government and in other states to do more to stop gun violence.
"We at the California Department of Justice know that addressing gun violence is critical to public safety. And I, as your Attorney General, vow to do much more than send thoughts and prayers."