In 2016, federal officials detained the San Jose man accused of killing nine of his colleagues last week, finding him with books on terrorism and detailed writings about how much he hated the people at his work — but nobody bothered to alert local authorities, according to reports.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen told USA Today Friday the intel might have helped prevent the mass attack by Samuel Cassidy Wednesday that resulted in the deaths of nine employees at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail hub.
“The DA’s office was not notified,” Rosen said, adding he wasn’t aware of a single agency in the area that was told this information. “I would like to have known this in 2016.”
Cassidy was stopped on a trip back from the Philippines in 2016 by US Customs and Border Protection.
A Department of Homeland Security memo from the stop, which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal, states that an officer found Cassidy had “books about terrorism and fear and manifestos … as well as a black memo book filled with lots of notes about how he hates the VTA.”
Hellbound and Down 