HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — An agricultural worker killed seven people in back-to-back shootings at two mushroom farms that had employed him in Northern California and the massacre is believed to be a “workplace violence incident,” officials said Tuesday as the state mourned its third mass killing in eight days.
Officers arrested 66-year-old Chunli Zhao on Monday after they found him in his car in the parking lot of a sheriff’s substation, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said.
Authorities believe Zhao acted alone when he entered the Mountain Mushroom Farm in Half Moon Bay, California, where he worked, and opened fire, killing four people and leaving another seriously wounded. He then drove to another nearby farm where he had previously worked, and killed another three people, said Eamonn Allen, a spokesman with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.
At a news conference Tuesday, Allen declined to answer questions about whether Zhao had any previous criminal history, saying, “there were no specific indicators that would have led us to believe he was capable of something like this.”
“All of the evidence we have right now points to a workplace violence incident,” Allen said. The dead were five men and two women. The eighth gunshot victim, a man, remained in the hospital. Some were Asian and others were Hispanic, and some were migrant workers.
But it would not have been Zhao’s first fit of workplace rage, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday. In 2013 Zhao was accused of threatening to split a coworker’s head open with a knife and separately tried to suffocate the man with a pillow, the Chronicle reported, based on court documents.
The two were roommates and worked at a restaurant at the time, and the man, identified as Jingjiu Wang, filed a temporary restraining order against Zhao, which was granted and is no longer in effect. Wang could not be immediately reached.
The owner of Mountain Mushroom Farm, where Zhao allegedly killed four and injured a fifth person, could not immediately be reached.
After the first incident, Zhao allegedly killed three others at nearby Concord Farms. Owner Aaron Tung said in a statement that the facility was waiting for more information before it could comment. He said the farm was a family-owned operation for 37 years, and he thanked the community for its support.
Half Moon Bay is a small laid-back coastal city with agricultural roots about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco. Its sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean make it a popular spot for hikers and tourists, who flock to the beaches for surfing and to an annual giant pumpkin festival.
Earlier this month the area was hit by heavy rainstorms that caused flooding and damage, temporarily preventing farmworkers from earning, Half Moon Bay Vice Mayor Joaquin Jimenez said.