VTA shooting witness blasts management over massacre: ‘The stage was set for this disaster’

SAN JOSE — A VTA worker who heard the screams and witnessed the tragic aftermath of the Bay Area’s deadliest workplace shooting lashed out at the transit agency’s leaders, accusing them of ignoring a toxic work culture and dysfunctional management that may have put the shooter “over the edge.”

In a letter this week to the VTA’s new general manager and several board members, signalman Kirk Bertolet lambasted the agency for “not really wanting to get to the bottom of this.”

“The shooting was conducted by a madman,” Bertolet wrote in an email to the leaders Monday evening. “But the stage was set for this disaster.”

Bertolet’s pointed attack comes nearly three weeks after a union leader and a widow harshly criticized VTA management during a memorial service for the nine victims at SAP Center.

The letter is another sign of growing discontent over how the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency handled a trail of red flags surrounding mechanic Sam Cassidy, a 20-year VTA veteran who turned the gun on himself after killing his coworkers at the San Jose railyard May 26, as well as how the agency is handling its aftermath.

Along with the letter Bertolet penned to VTA leaders Wednesday night, he also planned to address the board directly Thursday evening during its scheduled online board meeting, where the transit agency was also set to discuss the timeline of reopening the rail line that has been closed since the tragedy.

Bertolet’s letter includes allegations that at least five managers were incompetent, failed to follow VTA policy and “failed to maintain a healthy workplace.”

“Just because his chain of command did not do their jobs, did not properly deal with Cassidy, did not document his outbursts and threats of violence against his coworkers does not mean that there weren’t any and VTA is free of any fault or responsibility as to what happened,” he wrote. “It is time that management at VTA thoroughly investigate these individuals and stop ignoring their failure.”

Gloria Rudometkin, the widow who took the stage at the memorial service last month to express her frustrations, applauded Bertolet’s letter and said her husband, Michael, “should still be alive today.”

“Instead, due to negligence, poor communication, and unforgivable mismanagement, he was murdered by a ‘highly disgruntled’ coworker,” she wrote in an email to this news organization. “The coworker who murdered these men had previously expressed hatred of the VTA and dark thoughts about harming specific people he worked with. He intimidated fellow coworkers and had a documented history of insubordination and altercations at the VTA.”

In 2016, Cassidy was temporarily detained by federal customs agents at San Francisco International Airport after returning from a trip to the Philippines and found with a “manifesto” and a black memo book filled with notes about his hatred for the VTA. VTA officials say they were never alerted by the Department of Homeland Security about the encounter.

An email seeking comment from VTA General Manager Carolyn Gonut through its media relations department was not answered Thursday afternoon.

But in one of the first public comments from a board member voicing concerns over VTA’s handling of the tragedy, Rich Constantine, who is also mayor of Morgan Hill, called Bertolet’s letter “disturbing.”

“We can’t bury our heads in the sand and not find out what happened,” Constantine said. “If it’s systemic problems, they will be dealt with.”

The VTA has hired a law firm to act as an independent investigator looking into the issues surrounding the May 26 attack, although it’s unclear exactly what information they will be seeking.

In response to public records requests from the Bay Area News Group, the VTA in recent weeks released a number of internal emails showing at least five workplace conflicts involving Cassidy over the previous two years, including berating a fellow employee over a vacation schedule. One email showed that a coworker was afraid of Cassidy and worried he would “go postal.”

Bertolet, who worked in the building at the VTA’s Guadalupe railyard where the shooting broke out, was one of the first to come upon the first six victims. Only one was still breathing and later died in the hospital. He consoled one woman who had curled up on the floor during the shooting and was spared.

Bertolet, 64, said in an interview Thursday that he felt compelled to speak out. He’s near retirement and isn’t afraid of any repercussions for speaking to the media. He remains on medical leave and is seeing a therapist for the trauma he endured that day, he said.

He hopes that increased pressure on VTA leadership will create change.

“They’re just saying that ‘Cassidy was crazy, the guy lost it and we had nothing to do with it.’ That’s not true,” Bertolet said. “There’s a perfect opportunity to go through from the top down and recreate a new agency with competent people and start a whole new corporate culture.”