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Gunman in San Jose shooting had a temper and kept "things to himself," ex-wife says

9 killed in San Jose rail yard mass shooting
Man kills 9 people, mostly coworkers, at San Jose rail yard 03:42

The ex-wife of the gunman who opened fire Wednesday morning at a public transit rail yard in San Jose, California, said he struggled with a temper.

"That was one of our biggest problems. He was very quiet, keep things to himself," Cecilia Nelms told CBS News.

Investigators haven't determined why 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy shot and killed nine people and wounded several others.  He had two semi-automatic weapons and 11 magazines, a Santa Clara County Sheriff's spokesman confirmed to CBS News.

Still, she said, she was "in shock because I never thought he would do anything like that."

Nelms told The Associated Press that Cassidy had talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago. "I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now," she told the AP.

Family members at a reunification site wailed for nearly 12 hours only to learn their loved ones were among those killed.

Taptejdeep Singh was one of those killed. He worked as a light rail operator for roughly nine years and leaves behind a wife and two small children.

"We lose a very good person. He's very good person in our family," Bagga Singh told CBS News' Jamie Yuccas.

Coworkers told his family the 36-year-old pushed one of them into a room to hide from the shooter, then frantically started warning others. "He just saved her, and then after that, he go towards the downstairs, you know," Singh said.

Shots rang out at the Valley Transportation Authority as workers were changing shifts. A law enforcement source tells CBS News workers had gathered for a union meeting when the shooting started. They were heard yelling: "Run, hide, fight."

Officers were on the scene almost immediately. They entered the building and encountered Cassidy, who took his own life. Glenn Hendricks, chair of Valley Transportation Authority, is still in shock that this horrific incident happened.

 "Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think something like this would occur," he said.

Cassidy, a 57-year-old transit employee, lived nearby. A neighbor's doorbell camera shows him leaving the house Wednesday morning with a large black duffel bag. Shortly before he allegedly began shooting, a fire erupted at his home. Police suspect arson and later found hundreds of rounds of ammunition inside.

The violence in San Jose marks the seventh workplace shooting this year. 

"When they said goodbye to their spouse this morning, to their husband, they didn't mean goodbye forever, they meant goodbye until dinner time," Jeff Rosen, Santa Clara County District Attorney, said.

Adrian Balleza was another victim in this shooting. His wife told Yuccas she is heartbroken her two-year-old son will have to grow up without his father. She said Balleza couldn't wait until their son was old enough to take him fishing, and now she's devastated he won't get to watch him grow up. 

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