Eight shot, seven fatally during Half Moon Bay mass shooting was ‘instance of workplace violence,’ police say

A suspect jailed for fatally shooting seven people at two different sites in California was a disgruntled agricultural worker at the mushroom farm where the deadly violence first began, according to police.

“All evidence we have points to this being an instance of workplace violence,” San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus told reporters on Tuesday.

She added that those killed “may have been the coworkers” of 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, who was employed at Mountain Mushroom Farm in the city of Half Moon Bay.

Zhao used a legally purchased semiautomatic handgun on Monday to carry out the carnage in the small coastal community, which is part of the San Francisco Bay area. He initially opened fire around 2:30 p.m. at the mushroom farm where he once worked, fatally striking four people and wounding another, according to authorities.

From there, he traveled about two miles away to a nearby trucking farm, where he allegedly shot and killed another three people.

Authorities said seven men and one woman — all of them Asian and Hispanic — were struck in the shooting.

“As some of these victims were members of our migrant community, this represents a unique challenge when it comes to notifications and identifications of next-of-kin,” Corpus said

The lone survivor was taken to the hospital and is out of surgery and stable, she added.

Zhao was arrested on Monday outside a sheriff’s substation after authorities spotted him sitting inside his vehicle in the parking lot. A search of the car turned up the weapon authorities believe was used in the mass shooting, the deadliest ever to occur in San Matteo County.

The incident is also one of three deadly mass shootings to unfold across California in the span of three days. It came hours before gunfire broke out at an Oakland gas station, where one person was killed and another seven were wounded. It also came after 11 people were fatally shot late Saturday while celebrating the Lunar New Year at a ballroom dance studio in Southern California.

Zhao is set to be arraigned Wednesday, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

With News Wire Services