SAN JOSE — A man found gravely injured Thursday along light-rail tracks on North First Street was a freshly retired dispatcher for that very same transit system, and evidence is mounting that he was hit and killed by a bus, also run by that system.

Milpitas resident Benny Cheung, 60, worked for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority for 37 years, most recently as a light-rail dispatcher, VTA spokeswoman Stacey Hendler Ross said. Cheung was honored in February by the VTA board for his decades of service.

“It’s so horrible to think about,” Hendler Ross said. “He just left our agency after 37 years, and this happens. The irony is tragic. The whole situation is tragic. It’s cut deep with a lot of employees here.”

But prior to this newspaper obtaining an internal memo Tuesday, neither VTA nor San Jose police acknowledged that Cheung’s death likely involved a transit authority bus. When VTA sent the memo Monday to inform employees, San Jose police indicated there was nothing new to report to the public.

In fact, word of Cheung’s death and the “ironic” circumstances was already circulating hours after the Thursday evening incident, according to a VTA employee who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Hendler Ross corroborated Tuesday that the memo was sent to employees the previous day, but referred all further questions to San Jose police, who are investigating the case. Police acknowledged the account that implicates a VTA bus, but said detectives are waiting to confirm several elements of that narrative, including waiting for tests on physical evidence from the scene.

The VTA memo, written by Rufus Frances, director of system safety and security for VTA, stated that “preliminary evidence in the ongoing investigation indicates Mr. Cheung had just de-boarded the VTA bus involved in this tragic accident.”

“Our hearts go out to Mr. Cheung’s family, friends and former co-workers,” Frances wrote, adding that grief counselors are available for staff in mourning.

What confused many of Cheung’s family and colleagues was a dearth of official information for several days at the same time they were hearing about the bus accident. VTA spokeswoman Linh Hoang confirmed that transit managers learned Friday that Cheung was a passenger on the bus that they suspect hit him.

Hoang also said “the driver of the bus involved in the accident was taken off duty” afterward, and has since been put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of compulsory drug screening tests that comply with the Federal Transit Administration’s “post incident protocol.”

San Jose police stood by its initial contention that they were dealing with a potential hit-and-run, given that no bus was present and no witnesses were around when officers discovered the fallen Cheung. That status is expected to change as the investigation progresses, police said.

“I’m sure a lot of family, friends and co-workers have a lot of questions about the circumstances,” Sgt. Enrique Garcia said, “but the SJPD has an obligation to do a comprehensive investigation and process all the evidence and examine all the facts before reaching a conclusion.”

Garcia added: “There were no witnesses to this incident and we are relying on physical evidence to make a determination. There’s a strong possibility that a VTA bus was involved. However, we can’t say definitively until we finish examining the evidence.”

Cheung was found about 7:50 p.m. on March 23 after police received a 911 call about a body in the road. He was pronounced dead at the scene. As of Tuesday, the Santa Clara County coroner’s office had not determined an official cause of death.

Anyone with information about the case can contact the San Jose police Traffic Investigation Unit at 408-277-4654.