Police identify California shooter as Samuel Cassidy [Updated]

Police in Santa Clara, California have identified the gunman who killed eight people on Wednesday at a California railyard serving Silicon Valley.

The shooter, who was 57 years old, was also dead, authorities said, initially claiming his cause of death was undetermined.

A Santa Clara County sheriff’s spokesman said Cassidy was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority.

The authority provides bus, light rail, and other transit services throughout Santa Clara County, the largest county in the Bay Area.

CNN reports that the investigation is ongoing, and officials have not yet released a possible motive.

According to local NBC station, Cassidy attacked San Jose’s VTA Light Rail Facility near the airport around 6:30 a.m. local time during a union gathering.

He then killed himself, according to the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office and local NBC station.

Cassidy was an employee of the VTA, the network reported.

The outlet reported the gunman set his own home on fire before driving to the facility and there are eight fatalities but it’s not clear if that number includes the shooter.

Edward Cassidy, 88-year-old dad of Samuel Cassidy, told The Daily Beast that he was shocked by the news, as his son “seemed completely himself” in the days before the shooting.

Samuel Cassidy had worked for the transit authority since at least 2012, when he was listed as an “electro-mechanic.”

He was promoted to “substation maintainer” in 2015, according to records posted by the nonprofit website Transportation California.

Last year, he earned a salary of $102,000, plus benefits and $20,000 in overtime, the records showed.

Meanwhile, the County of Santa Clara medical examiner-coroner’s office identified the victims late on Wednesday.

All were men aged between 29 and 63.

Their names are: Paul Delacruz Megia, Taptejdeep Singh, Adrian Balleza, Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, Timothy Michael Romo, Michael Joseph Rudometkin, Abdolvahab Alaghmandan and Lars Kepler Lane.