SAN JOSE, Calif. — A device or package initially thought to contain a “small amount of explosives” and found during a search of the home of Valley Transportation Authority mass shooter Samuel Cassidy was detonated safely on the grounds early Friday afternoon, according to San Jose police.
But police later said the item was not deemed to be explosive, but its arrangement of batteries and wires spurred bomb technicians to detonate it as a precaution.
Police made the announcement of the pending detonation just before 11:30 a.m. Pacific tme on Friday, on the third day that police, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, ATF and San Jose Fire Department have staged around Cassidy’s home on Angmar Court off McLaughlin Avenue.
A commander on scene and SJPD spokesperson Officer Steven Aponte described the object as a singular device, and that it was detonated using a specialized containing device to prevent the spread of shrapnel.
The sheriff’s office has been serving search warrants for the past two days at Cassidy’s home, which authorities suspect he set fire to when he left the home at about 5:40 a.m. Wednesday. That was approximately an hour before he opened fire at the VTA rail yard facility on Younger Avenue, killing nine people before he fatally shot himself as a responding deputy and police officers were closing on him.
On Thursday, FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair said the fire significantly hindered the recovery of evidence like computers and other materials that might have shed light on precisely why Cassidy carried out the shooting and how long he had planned it.
The detonation incident Friday was the latest in series of bomb scares that authorities have described and responded to in the wake of the shooting. On Wednesday, as investigators began their examination of Cassidy’s home, media members and nearby residents were abruptly pushed back to a one-block radius because of what police on scene said was an explosives risk.
And shortly after the shooting, the sheriff’s office said a bomb-sniffing dog caught a hint of possible explosive materials in Cassidy’s VTA locker, a suspicion exacerbated by wires that bomb techs thought might be detonating wire.
Sheriff’s officials said Thursday that no explosives were found, and that the wires and other items in Cassidy’s locker they initially thought might be bomb parts were deemed not to be dangerous.
