As the Half Moon Bay community mourns the seven people killed Monday in a mass shooting, the San Mateo District Attorney on Wednesday laid out charges against the suspect.
Suspected gunman Chunli Zhao, 66, was set to appear in a Redwood City courtroom Wednesday to face seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, with the special circumstance of multiple murders and a firearms enhancement on each charge, DA Stephen Wagstaffe said.
San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus revealed Tuesday that Zhao allegedly used a semi-automatic weapon he owned legally. Sources told NBC Bay Area that Zhao knew the people he killed and he told investigators they picked on him for years.
Zhao is accused of killing two co-workers near a greenhouse at a farm off Highway 92 before going to nearby mobile homes, where he shot and killed a co-worker’s wife and two more co-workers, including the lone survivor, a man who is now in stable condition, investigators said.
Zhao then drove from that scene to the mushroom farm on Cabrillo Highway South (Highway 1) and killed a married couple he worked with previously along with another former co-worker, investigators say. He then drove to the sheriff's substation, where he was taken into custody.
Zhao was set to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Redwood City.
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