San Jose marks 1 year after mass shooting at VTA railyard
SAN JOSE – The city of San Jose on Thursday marked one year since the massacre at the VTA railyard, mourning the nine workers who were killed in the deadliest mass shooting in Bay Area history.
The workers killed in the shooting were Abdojlvahab Alaghmandan, 63, Adrian Balleza, 29, Jose Hernandez III, 35, Lars Lane, 63, Michael Rudometkin, 40, Paul Megia, 42, Taptejeep Singh, 36, Timothy Romo, 49, and Alex Fritch, 49.
A 10th worker, Henry Gonzales, was found dead in his home in August of an apparent suicide after witnessing the shooting.
"The cruel act of one individual has shattered so many families and impacted all of us with the loss of our colleagues and friends," VTA General Manager Carolyn Gonot said. "As a family, we've tried our best to deal with this tragedy."
VTA employees gathered at a private ceremony at the Guadalupe light rail yard early Thursday morning to honor their co-workers. A public memorial began at 9 a.m. Thursday at the 526 Resiliency Center at 353 W. Julian St.
"One year ago, San José woke to what would become our City's darkest day: the worst mass shooting in the Bay Area's history. The devastating toll for too many of our community members included lost loved ones, dear friends, and valued colleagues," said Mayor Sam Liccardo in a prepared statement issued Thursday. "May 26, 2021 irrevocably changed San José, and it stole something from each of us. But in the days that followed, we pulled together as one community, supporting our friends and neighbors, uplifting the memories of those who have left us too soon, and carrying those still here through their journey to healing. Let's take a moment together to honor those community members we have lost, and to commit our support for their grief-stricken loved ones."
The Santa Clara Sheriff's office gave a flag raised in the days following the shooting to the survivors.
Survivors were speaking Thursday about the long road of recovery.
"What I see in the crowd today is nothing but love for all our brothers," said ATU Local 265 representative John Courtney. "Let's take that path and let's take that course; let's follow the path of love in honor of those brothers who we lost. And let's heal, not just with words, but with actions."
Courtney also called for VTA executives to improve working conditions at the transit agency in an effort to ensure that employees can "know that they're not going to be harmed or assaulted."
"Systemically, we face a monster," Courtney said. "A monster at VTA that wasn't created overnight. It's not going to be fixed in a year, but God darn it it's going to be fixed if it's the last thing that we do."
Officials commended survivors for their strength in the last year and expressed their continued support.
"You survived the hardest day and hardest year of your life, around you with your resilience and your grace. We know that your paths to heal will never end, but neither will our support," said Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
The anniversary brought up sad and terrible memories, especially for the survivors.
"I will continue to cheer him on and be his biggest fan for as long as I am here. And I would have given anything to take those bullets for him," said Karrey Benbow, the mother of victim's Jose Hernandez III.
One VTA employee who says more could have and should have been done to prevent the tragedy.
One year after surviving the mass shooting at the VTA Light Rail yard, Kirk Bertolet told KPIX 5 he is still traumatized.
"It's bringing up a lot of feelings about the day, what I witnessed, the loss of friends who I saw die," he said.
Bertolet says he knew the shooter Sam Cassidy who took the lives of nine coworkers before killing himself. He's frustrated that VTA has not been forthcoming about its own investigation of what led to the massacre, and whether managers knew Cassidy had threatened his co-workers.
"Nobody's contacted me, nobody's contacted the other witnesses who I know about. They have not reached out to anybody," said Bertolet. "I think they're just waiting for the time period to run over for the lawsuits and then, walk away clean."
VTA recently demolished Building B where most of the lives were lost in the mass shooting. But Building A remains, which Bertolet called dangerous because of a lack of exits.
"One door. Same door for entry and exit. Cassidy shot out that door and there was no place for the people to go," he said.
Bertolet is on extended leave from VTA's Signal Department. He moved to Oklahoma for a change of scenery and is going through counseling.
He says he's gotten a lawyer, but currently has no settlement offers from VTA.
In the year since the shooting, city leaders have passed a number of gun control measures.
Vice Mayor and VTA Chairperson Chappie Jones offered a sober assessment of how effective the measures would be in preventing a future mass shooting.
"I feel that we're just as vulnerable today as we were last year. The question around whether we've done enough, the city is very limited in terms of what we can do," Jones said.
Since the shooting, the city council passed an ordinance requiring gun shops to record audio and video of purchases. The goal was to reduce so-called straw sales in which someone who can legally buy a firearm purchases one for someone who cannot.
The council also required gun owners, starting in August, to have gun liability insurance and to pay an annual fee to offset the public safety costs of gun violence. Finally, the council banned the sale, possession, purchase and manufacture of ghost guns.
"It's a lot. And we all should be angry and sad. But we cannot give up hope because we are making progress. This is not going to be fixed overnight and we have to show up," said Rachel Michelson of Moms Demand Action, following Tuesday's massacre at a school in Texas along with the approaching anniversary of the VTA shooting.
Michelson said the gun control measures enacted in San Jose represent incremental improvements to public safety. But she fears we will remain vulnerable as a society as long as there is a patchwork of state laws, ready access to firearms and gridlock in Congress.
"Enough is enough. We do not need to live this way. We don't need to die this way," she said.
