5 people killed in Half Moon Bay shooting were Chinese citizens

Five of the seven victims killed in Monday’s shooting in Half Moon Bay, Calif., were Chinese citizens, China’s consulate in San Francisco said.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for the consulate strongly condemned the gruesome attack that took place in a small coastal community south of San Francisco.

“We are in close contact with relative departments in the U.S. and actively monitoring any update of the investigation,” the spokesperson said in a news release.

“In the meantime, we have gotten in touch with the family members of most of the victims, and will do as much as we can to provide consular assistance,” officials added.

Four people at a mushroom farm and three others at a site about two miles away were killed. Eight others were wounded in an attack described by authorities as an “instance of workplace violence.”

The suspect, 66-year-old Chunli Zhao, is also a Chinese citizen.

He was arrested Monday just hours after the shooting. On Wednesday the San Mateo District Attorney’s Office charged him with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Two of the victims who died after the attack were from Mexico, the Mexican Consulate of San Francisco said in a statement Tuesday.

The Half Moon Bay shooting was the second shooting with multiple casualties in California in just a few days.

On Saturday a 72-year-old gunman opened fire at a dance studio in Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian neighborhood just east of the city of Los Angeles.

Eleven people were killed and nine were injured in that attack, which happened during a celebration of the Lunar New Year.