'Multiple Fatalities' In California Shooting, Suspect Dead: Police

Multiple people were killed in a shooting Wednesday at a rail yard in California's Bay Area, police said, the latest instance of deadly gun violence in the United States

San Francisco, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th May, 2021 ) :Multiple people were killed in a shooting Wednesday at a rail yard in California's Bay Area, police said, the latest instance of deadly gun violence in the United States.

"I can't confirm the exact number of injuries and fatalities. But I will tell you that there are multiple injuries and multiple fatalities in this case," Russell Davis, a Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputy, told journalists, adding that the gunman was dead.

Police rushed to an "active shooter investigation" at a public transit maintenance yard in San Jose -- a Silicon Valley tech hub of almost million people -- after multiple 911 calls reported gunshots.

It was not immediately clear if the shooter was a worker at the facility, but police said some of the victims were employees at the site.

- US 'epidemic' of gun violence - A Fox news affiliate said the shooting -- which was initally reported before 7:00 am local time (1400 GMT) -- had taken place at a union meeting, citing the mother of an employee who escaped unharmed.

Police did not immediately give any details on how the shooter was killed, or about the type of weapon used. Dozens of patrol cars and fire engines lined the streets near the rail yard.

Several people were receiving medical treatment, said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.

"Our hearts are pained for the families of those we have lost in this horrific shooting," he tweeted.

The building where the incident took place is a control center for the area's Valley Transportation Authority that is also used to store trains and serves as a maintenance yard.

The VTA tweeted that its employees had been evacuated and public transit services would not be affected.

The United States has a long and painful history of deadly gun violence, in the form of a steady daily toll of shootings as well as high-profile mass killings that have targeted schools, work places and shopping centers.

Homicides, mostly gun-driven, have surged in the US over the past year.

Mass shootings have occurred in recent months at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, an office building in California, a grocery store in Colorado and at several spas in Atlanta.

In August 2019, another mass shooting in the Bay Area left two children and a 25-year-old man dead at a garlic festival in Gilroy, around 30 miles (almost 50 kilometers) south of San Jose.

President Joe Biden last month branded US gun violence an "epidemic" and an "international embarrassment."There were more than 43,000 gun-related deaths in the United States last year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive.