The VTA board in San Jose held an emotional and heartbreaking tribute to their co-workers Thursday night. It was the first meeting since the mass shooting eight days ago.
In the same meeting, VTA was also deciding what to do with the buildings where the shootings took place.
Flowers adorn the sign in front of Santa Clara County Sheriff’s headquarters on Thursday. Just a few yards away, is the building at the VTA yard, the center of the deadliest mass shooting In Bay Area history.
Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC San Diego newsletters.
Only investigators are in the building now. Santa Clara County supervisor Cindy Chavez took a tour of the property on Monday.
“It was heart breaking. It was heartbreaking to see where people lost their lives and see a place that’s like home for many people who work for VTA,” she said.
On the tour, one of the questions that came up related to the future of buildings A and B was “will they stay up?” or “will they be demolished?”
U.S. & World
Chavez said the facility has been in need of upgrades. But it won’t be easy to simply knock them down.
“One of the challenges we have is that yard is where we bring light rail trains for storage in the evening, and where we launch in the morning,” she said.
Chavez said one thing the county can do is improve the site so it’s not as traumatic for employees when they return to work and any permanent memorial on the property will involve the input of employees and victims' family members.
During Thursday night's meeting, there were discussions about what to do next as the community tries to heal. The VTA leadership said they are doing everything possible to support their co-workers and the victim’s families.
The VTA board in its first meeting back, honoring the nine people killed in the May 26 mass shooting.
The VTA board chair Glenn Hendricks broke down multiple times by sharing a quick story about each of the victims through tears.
He closed out the meeting with the victims’ names to never forget.
Also, on Thursday, VTA employees were shuttled in buses with special logos to the first the nine funerals.
To allow workers time to mourn, the VTA said the light rail service and bus bridges will stay suspended indefinitely.
