San Jose: Triple homicide suspect’s past includes San Jose State library shooting
SAN JOSE — The man arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting three people at a South San Jose apartment earlier this week made news six years ago when he was accused of shooting at the San Jose State University library, part of a criminal record that details trouble with guns and bouts of mental illness.
Joseph Vicencio, 26, of San Jose, was being held without bail in the Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of murder in the deaths of two women and a man at an apartment in the 200 block of Chynoweth Avenue early Tuesday. The three victims were found gravely wounded at the scene, with one being pronounced dead on site and the other two dying after being taken to the hospital.
One of the victims has been formally identified by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office: Tarrah Lynn Taylor, 26, of San Jose. Additionally, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said one of the shooting victims was a public employee in the city’s housing division.
Vicencio was arrested by San Jose police and booked into jail Wednesday, and is expected to be arraigned Friday.
Previously, he was arrested and charged in connection with a Sept. 19, 2019 shooting outside the San Jose State library on East San Fernando Street, in which bullets hit the glass exterior of the library and a nearby parking garage. Several people told police that they were nearly hit by the gunfire.
A public-facing investigation that included the release of surveillance images led to Vicencio’s arrest. At the time, his father told this news organization that Vicencio grew up in a troubled household in part because of the father’s substance-abuse and addiction issues.
There is no readily available information in the court system about the result of the shooting prosecution; the case appears to be one of two criminal cases that were expunged from his record.
About six months before that shooting, Vicencio was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after an employee at a group home where he was living reportedly found an empty handgun case and then saw Vicencio holding a loaded 9mm magazine. The employee told police he wrestled away a 9mm semiautomatic handgun he saw in Vicencio’s waistband.
Vicencio reportedly claimed he had no intention to shoot anyone, and was placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold; the case was dismissed the following year.
Court records also show that in 2020, while in jail presumably in connection with the library shooting, Vicencio was found with methamphetamine in his cell and later pleaded no contest to a drug possession count.
His only other court case dates back to May 2017 when, while at a different San Jose group home, Vicencio was charged with misdemeanor vandalism after reportedly breaking a window and furniture “in a rage about someone stealing his non-prescription Xanax from his room,” according to a police report. He was also placed on an involuntary mental-health hold afterward; he later pleaded no contest to the charge, and was sentenced to two years of probation.
Anyone with information about Tuesday’s fatal shootings can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283 or email Detective Sgt. Richard Martinez at 3934@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Christina Jize at 4324@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.