San Jose

VTA Yard Shooting Survivor Says Victim's Call Saved His Life

As investigators narrow in on a motive, survivors try to pick up the pieces and honor the victims and heroes of the worst mass shooting in Bay Area history

Powerful stories of fear, survival and heroism are coming from Wednesday’s deadly mass shooting at the VTA train yard in San Jose. Gurvinder Singh told NBC Bay Area that he wouldn't be here today if not for the actions of one of the victims.

Singh returned to the scene of the shooting Thursday afternoon. Just one day after perhaps the worst day of his life. “Definitely it’s been hard. It’s been tough,” he said.

Singh was in building B when he says his co-worker, Taptejdeep Singh called and told him to get everyone out of there because there was a shooter in the other building.

Minutes later, Taptejdeep Singh was killed.

“It’s definitely tough. I would say he saved our lives. He gave us a call. I’m sure he was calling others,” Gurvinder Singh said.

On Thursday, inside that same building, dozens of federal agents continued processing the crime scene, and finding new evidence. This includes authorities finding three semi-automatic handguns and 32 illegal high capacity magazines.

“There may be more guns because we haven’t gone into the backpack. We’re estimating right now preliminarily about 39 shots fired,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith.

There are growing reports the shooter may have been selecting specific targets and the Santa County Sheriff's Office said he was a “highly disgruntled VTA employee for many tears.”

Law enforcement sources told NBC Bay Area that the shooter's co-workers had complained about him making racist remarks in recent weeks and boasting about having guns and explosives.

The FBI also said it lost a lot of evidence when the shooter's house burned in a fire, they suspect he started.

“There’s a high probability that we lost the ability to do exploitation of devices. The home was incinerated. The second floor collapsed,” said Craig D. Fair, Special Agent in Charge at FBI’s San Francisco Office.

As investigators narrow in on a motive, survivors try to pick up the pieces and honor the victims and heroes of the worst mass shooting in Bay Area history.

The FBI said it is searching five different sites methodically. While survivors are asking for help dealing with the guilt of survivor's remorse.

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