8 killed in Silicon Valley area rail yard shooting

A gunman has killed eight people at a commuter train yard in the city of San Jose, California, in the latest US mass shooting.

Police say the victims include multiple transit employees. The suspect, also an employee, is reported to be dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Early on Wednesday morning, the gunman opened fire on a meeting of rail workers, according to a local CBS station.

“Our officers arrived as shots were still being fired,” Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith told a press conference.

Law enforcement officials told CBS News that the gunman was 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy.

A spokesman for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, said “Deputies did not exchange gunfire with the suspect. Preliminarily, we’re going to go with the assumption it was a self-inflicted gunshot.”

Just before the shooting, a fire broke out at a home belonging to the Santa Clara VTA employee, according to local media.

Authorities say they are looking into whether the suspect may have set his home on fire before embarking on the rampage.

San Jose Fire Department spokesman Erica Ray said that officials are investigating “multiple” crime scenes related to the shooting.

Authorities said a bomb squad was sent to the scene, but there was no active threat to the public.

Santa Clara is the largest county in California’s Bay Area and is home to Silicon Valley. It encompasses several cities in Northern California including Cupertino, San Jose and Mountain View.

Adobe, PayPal, Apple and eBay are all based in the county of nearly two million residents, located about 50 miles south-east of San Francisco.

Across the US, there have been 230 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. A mass shooting is defined by the group as a crime in which four or more people are fatally shot.

Speaking from near the crime scene, California Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the “rinse and repeat” cycle of US mass shootings.

“What the hell is wrong with the United States of America?” he said.