City Reopens Its Offices

☛ ☛ NTERPRISEt h e l i v i n g s t o n E Wednesday, May 26, 2021 •฀Livingston,฀Montana฀•฀Vol.฀115 No.฀112฀ $1.00 8 dead in shooting at rail yard serving Silicon Valley SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — An employee opened fire Wednesday at a California rail yard serving Silicon Valley, killing eight people before ending his own life, authorities said. The suspect was an employee of the Val- ley Transportation Authority, which pro- vides bus, light rail and other transit ser- vices throughout Santa Clara County, the largest county in the Bay Area, authorities said. The attacker was identified as 57-year-old Sam Cassidy, according to two law enforce- ment officials. Investigators offered no immediate word on a possible motive. The shooting took place around 6:30 a.m. at a light rail facility that includes a transit- control center, parking for trains and a maintenance yard. Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Russell Davis said the attack also resulted in “mul- tiple major injuries.” He did not know the type of weapon used. He said the victims included VTA employees. Authorities did not release any of the victims’ names. “These folks were heroes during COV- ID-19. The buses never stopped running, VTA didn’t stop running. They just kept at Enterprise photo by Sam Klomhaus work, and now we’re really calling on them City of Livingston legal assistant Ashley Roehl waves from the doorway at the city’s offices in the City/County Complex, which are now to be heroes a second time to survive such open to the public, Wednesday. a terrible, terrible tragedy,” Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said it was his understanding the shooting happened inside the VTA building. Victims’ grief-stricken families sat hud- City reopens its offices dled together, holding hands and crying, after learning they had lost a loved one, Rosen told reporters, describing the scene By Sam Klomhaus “With the change in COVID Guide- encourage members of the public to inside a county building. Enterprise Staff Writer lines, all City Offices are open to the get their COVID-19 vaccines from “They’re just sitting and holding hands public for business,” a message on one of the local vaccine providers. and crying,” Rosen said. “It’s terrible. It’s he city of Livingston has the city’s Facebook page read. “We The offices of city manager and awful. It’s raw. People are learning they reopened its offices to the are following all CDC Guidelines and city attorney are located at the City/ lost their husband, their son, their brother.” public, according to the city’s protocols. If you are fully immunized, County Complex, 414 E. Callender St. He said about 100 people were inside the TFacebook page. masks are not required. If (you) have The city’s Finance Office is at 110 S. family reunification center. The city’s offices had been closed not been immunized we encourage B St., and the Public Works and Plan- Police vehicles and orange crime-scene to the public since July 20 last year you to wear a mask.” ning departments are at 330 Bennett tape blocked off the area, and reporters because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Facebook post went on to St. were kept at a distance The rail yard is in the city’s administrative neighborhood, near the sheriff’s office and city and county offices. Bomb squads were searching the rail complex after receiving information about possible explosive devices inside the building, Davis said. 2 steps forward, 1 step back Officials were also investigating a house fire that broke out shortly before the shooting, Davis said. Public records show Cassi- dy owned a two-story home where fire- fighters responded Wednesday morning. Progress is made on lake trout suppression VTA trains were already out on morning runs when the shooting occurred. Light rail service was to be suspended at noon and replaced with bus bridges, agency Chair- but a new invasive fish looms man Glenn Hendricks told a news confer- ence. By Jason Bacaj been born in Yellowstone Lake, “It’s just very difficult for everyone to be Enterprise Staff Writer which suggests it lived along- able try to wrap their heads around and side parents and presumably understand what has happened,” Hendricks Significant progress has been thousands of siblings, Koel said. said. made in the ongoing effort to “There’s really no reason to Outside the scene, Michael Hawkins told remove nonnative lake trout think they won’t become highly The Mercury News that he was waiting for from Yellowstone Lake. But in a abundant in the lake, which is his mother, Rochelle Hawkins, who had Tuesday morning virtual presen- pretty sad,” Koel said. “They’re called him from a co-worker’s phone to tation of the park’s Native Fish definitely a serious problem for assure him that she was safe. Conservation Program, a park us.” When the shooting started, “she got down Cisco were first brought to the with the rest of her coworkers” and state in 1984, when the Montana dropped her cellphone, Michael Hawkins “Cisco did not swim Department of Fish, Wildlife and told the newspaper. Rochelle Hawkins did Parks planted the fish in the not see the shooter, and she was not sure there on their own. Fort Peck Reservoir in 1984 to how close she had been to the attacker, her support the walleye and lake son said. They didn’t get trout populations there. Koel noted that someone “took dropped by an eagle. a lot of time and care to move those fish” in enough abundance They were definitely to establish a reproducing popu- New wolf killing lation in Yellowstone Lake, more brought by humans.” than 400 miles southwest of the Fort Peck Reservoir. laws trigger push – Todd Koel, leader of Native “Cisco did not swim there on Fish Conservation Program their own. They didn’t get dropped by an eagle. They were definitely brought by humans,” to revive US fisheries biologist raised the Koel said. specter of another invasive fish Despite gill netting crews Photo by Brett Seymour/National Park Service, Submerged Resources Center species present in the lake. keeping a sharp eye out for National Park Service Submerged Resources Center aides work The invasive fish is a cisco, more cisco, none have been with a submersible used to identify lake trout spawning beds. protections native to the Great Lakes region, caught in the lake since 2019. and it was first found two sum- Crews also opened the stom- fisheries managers can track into Yellowstone River back- BILLINGS (AP) — Wildlife advocates mers ago in a gill net. Todd Koel, achs of about 10,000 lake trout them back to where the nonna- country — a boon for anglers. pressed the Biden administration on the conservation program lead- last year in search of the new tive trout congregate. A remote- Microplastics were also found Wednesday to revive federal protections er, said cisco are the preferred invasive, but have yet to find ly operated submersible then in Yellowstone Lake. Evidence for gray wolves across the Northern prey for lake trout and compete another individual cisco, Koel descends to take video and pho- suggests that lake-dwellers are Rockies after Republican lawmakers in for the same food resources as said. tos of the area, so managers can eating the plastic. Koel said park Idaho and Montana made it much easier native cutthroat trout. Gill nets catch around 300,000 identify spawning beds. officials intend to conduct fur- to kill the predators. The cisco caught in 2019 was a lake trout each year, according So far, Koel said they’ve found ther research into the depth and The Center for Biological Diversity, 3-year-old. Analysis of its bone to data Koel shared. Most are 14 spawning areas around the scale of the problem. Humane Society and Sierra Club filed a chemistry showed that it had killed, but some are tagged so lake. Fisheries managers then Koel also confirmed a year- legal petition asking Interior Secretary dump the carcasses of dead lake long delay facing a project to Deb Haaland to use her emergency trout on eggs in the spawning remove rainbow trout from Buf- authority to return thousands of wolves in site, killing the eggs. Decompos- falo Creek in the Absaroka- the region to protection under the Endan- ing carcasses remove dissolved Beartooth Wilderness. The proj- gered Species Act. oxygen from the water, quickly ect would have entailed using Republican lawmakers pushed through killing the lake trout embryos. chemicals to remove fish from legislation in recent weeks that would Organic pellets made of soy and the creek, then restocking the allow hunters and trappers to kill unlimit- wheat gluten are also used to kill creek with native cutthroat. ed numbers of wolves in Idaho and Mon- the lake trout eggs. The delay is because of a bill tana using aggressive tactics such as These efforts have reduced introduced in this year’s Mon- shooting them from ATVs and helicopters, the population of adult lake trout tana Legislature that requires hunting with night-vision scopes and set- by more than 80% since 2012. the Montana Fish and Wildlife ting lethal snares that some consider As a result, large cutthroat Commission to review any fish trout are now on average twice removal project to see whether Courtesy of Yellowstone National Park Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences as heavy as they were in the the lost fishing potential can be See Wolves, Page 3 This cisco was caught on Aug.

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