Cecilia Nelms Samuel Cassidy ex wife of San Jose VTA mass shooter says her former husband had two sides and had ongoing issues with co workers and bosses.
The San Jose VTA light-rail facility worker who killed eight people at his California workplace before turning the gun on himself ‘had two sides’ to him and would often complain about his colleagues and bosses, his ex-wife said according to reports.
‘When he was in a good mood he was a great guy. When he was mad, he was mad,’ Cecilia Nelms, 64, told the Bay Area News Group on Wednesday, referring to her ex-husband, Samuel James Cassidy.
Nelms, also told The Associated Press that Cassidy had a bad temper and would tell her that he wanted to kill people at work, ‘but I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now.’
Early Wednesday morning, Cassidy, 57, circa 6.34 am, carried out the deadly attack at San Jose’s VTA Light Rail Facility — where he worked as a substation maintainer, according to officials and reports.
The shooting coincided minutes after Cassidy was seen leaving his Angmar Court home which he set ablaze along with a plywood and lumber business nearby according to authorities. From there the VTA employee drove to work where he soon unleashed his rampage as fellow co-workers were having a union meeting.
Video of the fire at Samuel Cassidy’s house taken around the same time police say he shot and killed 8 people in San Jose https://t.co/73GwTMIWw0 pic.twitter.com/puC8NCfB1Z
— Christopher Salas (@KSBWChristopher) May 27, 2021
Vented about co-workers he wanted to shoot
Nelms and Cassidy were married for about 10 years, she told the news group, and during that time he would frequently rant about work. The couple eventually finalized their divorce in 2009, four years after Nelms had initially filed, by which time Cassidy was already involved with another woman who filed a sexual assault case against her former on and off boyfriend.
‘Several times during the relationship he became intoxicated, enraged and forced himself on me sexually,’ the now-ex-girlfriend wrote in a sworn declaration in March, 2009.
Cassidy, who also set his home ablaze before the mass shooting, would angrily vent about multiple facets of his job, including his assignments and the people he worked with, according to Nelms.
‘He just thought that some people got more easy-going things at work, and he’d get the harder jobs,’ she told Mercury News.
Cassidy according to the former spouse at one point sought treatment for depression.
The woman said she hadn’t any contact with Cassidy for 13 years.
Of note, another woman who was not named, told NBC Bay Area that she and Cassidy dated for six months back in 2009 after meeting on Match.com. The woman said Cassidy turned on her when she rejected his marriage proposal, telling him she didn’t want to rush into a wedding. The woman also recalled, Cassidy at one point saying, his job at VTA was ‘stressful and that he ‘complained about his boss’.
Neighor discusses hostile interations w Samuel Cassidy who shot 8 people dead today in San Jose California pic.twitter.com/Zgk9gZg40p
— ✨Sk Boz✨ (@skkboz) May 27, 2021
Anti-social loner who collected weapons
Neighbor, Doug Suh described Cassidy as a ‘lonely guy.’ Since moving to Angmar Court five years ago, Suh said he never saw any friends or family visiting Cassidy.
‘I’d say hello and he’d just look at me without saying anything,’ Suh said. ‘One day I was (crossing over his driveway while I backed out) of his driveway and he yelled at me, ‘Don’t even go on my driveway!’ After that I never talked to him again.’
Cassidy had worked for Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) since at least 2012, according to the public payroll and pension database known as Transparent California. His position from 2012 to 2014 was listed as a mechanic. After that, he maintained substations, the records said. Conflicting reports intimated that Cassidy had worked for the transport hub since at least the early 2000’s during his marriage to his former wife.
According to estimates the technician with base pay and overtime made $160K in pay.
Of disconcert, multiple weapons and ammunition were found inside Cassidy’s home and the attack appears to be related to a workplace issue, The LA Times reported.
Nelms said she was unaware of Cassidy owning guns when they were together.
Were victims specifically targeted or random?
Officials have yet to identity the victims, many of whom were shot while attending a union meeting at the light rail facility just on 6.30 am as gunman made his way into the light rail facility hub.
The Sikh Coalition tweeted that it understood ‘there are many Sikhs employed at this facility.’
It remained unclear whether the co-workers were indiscriminately set upon or targeted. Not immediately clear is what may have motived Wednesday’s blood bath.
The San Jose massacre is the 232nd mass shooting recorded in America in just the first five months of this year. As of this time in 2020, the U.S. saw only 135 mass shootings.
