Suspect in California Half Moon Bay shooting charged with 7 counts of murder: District Attorney

Chunli Zhao, a 66-year-old Half Moon Bay farm worker accused of killing seven of his colleagues in a “workplace violence” case, was charged Wednesday with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Zhao was due to appear in court for the first time on Wednesday, but was delayed until Feb. 16, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said at a press conference on Wednesday. His lawyers did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digitals request for comment.

Wagstaff shared that prosecutors did not ask for bail because Zhao is not a US citizen and has “many reasons to run.”

Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County District Attorney, addresses the media in front of the Hall of Justice following Chunli Zhao’s indictment on Wednesday, January 25, 2023, in Redwood City, California.
(Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

At the press conference, Wagstaffe declined to share any further details about the motive behind the murder of Zhao’s colleagues, saying he wanted to hide the details from the public in order to ensure a fair trial. Sheriff’s officials said it was workplace violence.

In addition to seven counts of murder, Zhao was charged with one count of attempted murder, improving the use of firearms and multiple murders under special circumstances, Wagstaffe said.

HALF MOON BAY, CA FAMILY SHOOTING ON A FARM: WHO SUSPECTS CHUNLI ZHAO?

Authorities believe Zhao acted alone on Monday when he entered a mushroom farm where he was working in Crescent Bay, shooting four people and seriously injuring a fifth. He then drove to a nearby farm where he used to work and killed three more people, said Eamonn Allen, a sheriff’s spokesman.

About two hours after deputies reacted to two separate shooting scenes, authorities said Zhao was found at 4:40 p.m. Monday in his car in the parking lot of the San Mateo Sheriff’s Office, where a deputy took him into custody without incident.

Zhao, a farm worker accused of killing seven people in a shootout at two mushroom farms in Northern California, was charged Wednesday with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
(Shay Hammond/Bay Area Newsgroup via AP, Pool)

Chunli Zhao appeared in San Mateo Superior Court in Redwood City, California on Wednesday, January 25, 2023.
(Shay Hammond/Bay Area Newsgroup via AP, Pool)

The San Mateo County coroner’s office named six victims: Zhisheng Liu, 73, from San Francisco; Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50, from Moss Beach, California; Aixiang Zhang, 74, from San Francisco; Qizhong Cheng, 66, from Half Moon Bay; Jingzhi Lu, 64, from Half Moon Bay; and Yetao Bing, 43, whose hometown is unknown. The indictment documents list José Romero Pérez as the other person killed and Pedro Romero Pérez as the eighth victim to survive the shooting.

All of the victims are believed to have been kennel workers and were of Asian and Hispanic descent, authorities said.

Servando Martinez Jimenez said his brother Marciano Martinez Jimenez, one of the victims, was a delivery man and manager on one of the farms. He never mentioned Zhao and didn’t say anything about problems with other workers.

“He was a good person. He was polite and friendly with everyone. He never had problems with anyone. I don’t understand why all this happened,” Martinez Jimenez said in Spanish.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, this was not Zhao’s first tantrum in the workplace. In 2013, Zhao was accused of threatening to cut open a colleague’s head with a knife and separately trying to suffocate a man with a pillow, Chronicle reports based on court documents.

SHOOTING IN NORTH CALIFORNIA LEFT AT LEAST SEVEN DEAD, OFFICIALS: SUSPECT PRISONED

The two were roommates and worked at a restaurant, and a man named Jingjiu Wang filed a temporary restraining order against Zhao, which was granted but is no longer valid.

Dave Pine, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, called Zhao a “disgruntled worker,” according to KRON.

According to Wagstaffe, Zhao is from China and has lived in the United States for at least a decade. Wagstaffe said he once had legal documents to live in the country, and investigators are investigating whether they are still valid. They also looked into his previous contacts with law enforcement.

Zhao, 66, is facing trial for the first time.
(Shay Hammond/Bay Area Newsgroup via AP, Pool)

According to The Independent, Zhao worked for mushroom farm for decades.

The bloodshed in Half Moon Bay was the third mass shooting in California in eight days. Suspect on Saturday Huu Kang Tran allegedly opened fire on the Lai Lai Ballroom in Monterey Park, killing 11 people and injuring nine others, according to police. It happened on the eve of the Chinese New Year.

On January 16, a teenage mother, her child and four others were killed in a home in California’s Central Valley.

“Only in America do we see this kind of carnage, this kind of chaos, this destruction of communities and lives, the confidence, the sense of security and belonging,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday after a mass mass. executions.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaff leaves the San Mateo Hall of Justice after indicting Chunli Zhao in Redwood City, California on Wednesday, January 25, 2023.
(AP Photo/Noah Berger)

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The New Year brought six massacres to the US in less than three weeks, resulting in 39 deaths. There have been three strikes in California since January 16, according to a database compiled by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

Daniel Wallace of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.