VTA railyard shooting victims remembered at Union City vigil

ByLuz Pena KGO logo

Monday, May 31, 2021

VTA shooting victims remembered at Union City vigil

Family and friends of the VTA shooting victims held a vigil to honor them. The remembrance took place in Union City, the home of 36-year-old victim Taptejdeep Singh who is being hailed a hero.

UNION CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- Family and friends of the VTA shooting victims held a vigil to honor them. The remembrance took place in Union City, the home of 36-year-old victim Taptejdeep Singh who is being hailed a hero.

Sunday night for the first time we are hearing from two of Taptejdeep Singh's co-workers who say he called them at 6:36 a.m. urging them to escape as the shooter approached him.

"You guys need to hide right now. Run. Then we asked him where he was and he said I'm on the third floor and we asked him who is also there and he said Paul in there and we said okay you go hide as well," said Gurvinder Singh and added, "Him letting us know and us making the call to go away from where he was based on the information he gave us. It definitely saved our lives and our co-workers lives."

Emotionally distraught Taptejdeep Singh's father spoke about his son. A loss for the Sikh community who gathered to honor the 9 victims including the 36 year old VTA operator. His brother coming back home to say good bye to his best friend

"To honor my brother and his memory to help out as many people as I can in my life," said Karman Gill, Taptejdeep Singh's brother.

VTA worker honored his colleagues by telling stories. Chris Alvarez, a VTA employee shared a story of victim Paul Megia helping him with a family matter.

"He told me, 'Chris you do what you need to do I'll take care of it here.' That is the kind of person that he was all the time," said Alvarez and added, "Adrian Balleza, just last week he had brought in muffins that he was so proud that he had baked himself. He was cutting them in half so that he could share them with everybody."

Holding back tears, Adriana Balleza remembered her cousin Adrian Balleza.

"Adrian was loved and he will be remembered as and we can continue his legacy by being love," said Viviana Balleza.

Several Bay Area council members calling for an end to gun violence. Wednesday shooting according to gun violence achieves was the 18th mass shooting of the year in California.

"Call our senators so that we can make sure that this has got to stop," said Fremont councilmember, Teresa Cox.

As they wait for change, what's helping the Singh family heal are these stories of heroism.

"A woman told me that he pushed her and closed the door. He went to safe other people. He was running in the building to tell the people hey be careful there's a shooting," said Sukhwent Dhillon, Singh's uncle.

Take a look at the latest stories and videos about the mass shooting at the VTA rail yard in San Jose.

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