Seven people were killed in two related shootings on Monday, January 23 at farm facilities in a coastal California community south of San Francisco. It was the state’s third mass killing in eight days, including Saturday’s attack on a ballroom that killed 11 people during Chinese New Year celebrations.
Four people were found dead and a fifth wounded from gunshot wounds at a farmhouse, and officers found three more people killed at another location several miles away, the sheriff’s office said. The murders took place on the outskirts of Half Moon Bay, a city about 30 miles south of San Francisco. Corpus said the two places were day care centers and it wasn’t immediately clear how they were connected. Officers arrested one suspect, 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said.
The motive is still unclear
Officials believe Zhao worked at one of the facilities and the victims were also workers, Corpus said. Workers at one facility lived inside, and children present may have witnessed the shooting. Corpus also said officials have not yet determined a motive for the shooting. Half Moon Bay Deputy Mayor Joaquin Jimenez said the victims were Chinese and Latino farm workers.
The sheriff’s office first received reports of a shooting shortly before 2:30 p.m. local time and found four people dead of gunshot wounds and a fifth person injured at the first scene. Shortly thereafter, officers found three more people dead of gunshot wounds at a second nearby location, Captain Eamonn Allen said in a news release.
The arrest of the suspect
About two hours later, a sheriff’s deputy spotted the suspect, Zhao, in his car parked at a shopping mall and arrested him, recognizing the car from the license plate. A video of the arrest showed three officers approaching a parked car with guns drawn. Zhao got out of the car, and officers pulled him to the ground, handcuffed him, and took him away.
A weapon was found inside his vehicle, officials said. The video was captured by Kati McHugh, a Half Moon Bay resident who witnessed the arrest. The sheriff’s department believes Zhao acted alone.