SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Flags at the San Diego County Administration Building and at Metropolitan Transit System headquarters are being flown at half-staff on Thursday following a deadly mass shooting at a San Jose rail yard.
On Wednesday morning, nine people were shot and killed by a gunman at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) maintenance rail yard.
The gunman, later identified as a VTA employee, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
In light of the tragedy, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher directed flags be flown at half-staff at the County Administration Building and MTS’ building “… in remembrance of the lives lost yesterday …”
Fletcher issued the following statement in response to the San Jose shooting:
“Another senseless, preventable shooting has rocked a community and left families grieving, again. Lifting the flags to half-staff is a symbolic gesture we do locally to memorialize and respect the lives lost to violence. After incidents like the one in San Jose or the countless others before it, you feel helpless, you want to do more, and then you realize our federal officials have the authority, but question whether they have the guts to use it. We need their response to this tragedy to be solutions not symbolic. I vow to stand with gun reform leaders in San Diego and across the county to fight for real reform.”
