A 66-year-old migrant farm worker was officially charged with intentional murder on Wednesday in the shooting of seven people near San Francisco, the second of two gun rampages in California in recent days in which 18 people were killed.
Chunli Zhao, a Chinese citizen and the lone suspect in Monday’s massacre at two mushroom farms in the seaside town of Half Moon Bay, was formally presented with seven counts of murder and a single count of attempted murder during his first court appearance in nearby Redwood City.
Zhao, wearing red-coloured jail garb and enclosed behind a glass panel, was ordered held without bond during a brief hearing before a San Mateo County Superior Court judge. The pudgy defendant, with close-cropped grey hair, was expressionless throughout the hearing. He was assigned two private defence lawyers, but no appeal was entered.
The next court proceeding in the case was set for 16 February.
A Mandarin-language translator was provided for the defendant, who according to District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, is a Chinese citizen who has lived in the United States for a minimum of 10 years.
After the hearing, Wagstaffe told reporters outside the courthouse that prosecutors have not yet determined Zhao’s precise immigration status, or whether he entered the country legally or not.
The prosecutor said authorities do have an idea about the suspect’s motives but apparently declined to reveal any details. Wagstaffe also revealed the presence of one clue, saying a note was seemingly found inside Zhao’s car, though he declined to reveal what it said as well.
The district attorney said Zhao was “cooperative” when initially interviewed by authorities following his arrest and gave “a complete statement.”
Still, the hope is that Zhao will enter a not-guilty plea as the proceedings progress, “and we want to make sure this man gets a fair trial,” Wagstaffe said.
In addition to eight felony counts, the 10-page criminal complaint alleges “special circumstances,” accusing Zhao of “personally and intentionally” shooting to kill.
Under California law, defendants convicted of murder with “special circumstances” can be qualified for the death penalty, though Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019, declared a moratorium on executions. The state has not put a condemned inmate to death since 2006.
Otherwise, the maximum sentence is life in prison without the possibility of parole, Wagstaffe said.
Late on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris paid a sympathy visit to the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, where 11 people were killed at a ballroom dance hall on Saturday night by a gunman who later took his own life by suicide.
Harris, a California native, laid flowers at a memorial set up outside the dance studio, and in brief comments to reporters called for Congress to enact tougher national gun-safety measures. She then met privately with the victims’ families.
California’s firearm laws are among the strictest in the country, and the two shootings, coming in quick succession, leaving the state reeling from one of the bloodiest spates of mass gun violence in decades.
Authorities said each of the two killing sprees represented the single greatest loss of life from a single act of violence in Los Angeles and San Mateo counties.
Asked if investigators believed the Half Moon Bay killings were a “copycat” crime inspired by the shootings in Monterey Park two days earlier, Wagstaffe said completely, “No.”
Zhao was taken into custody on Monday evening outside a sheriff’s station, where police said he had driven shortly after the attack on farm workers.
The precise motive for the shooting is still unclear. Zhao had been employed by one of the growers, Mountain Mushroom Farm, and had resided at the property along with some other employees, according to its owners. Authorities said early evidence indicated the bloodshed stemmed from a workplace grievance. The second crime scene, Concord Farms, is about a mile away.
Sheriff Christina Corpus said in a CNN interview that the gunman “went after and pursued” specific victims, even though he had the chance to hurt others and that he was a “co-worker or former co-worker” of the victims at both shooting sites.
She said Zhao was apparently not known to law enforcement before the Monday incident. CNN and other media outlets have reported Zhao was the subject of a temporary restraining order after a former co-worker accused him of attacking and threatening him back in 2013.
Half Moon Bay, a town of about 12,000 residents south of San Francisco, is home to both a luxury resort and a low-income farming community. The shooting cast a renewed spotlight on hardships faced by the area’s farm workers, many of them immigrants from Latin America and Asia who often live in labour encampments and toil long hours under poor conditions for extremely low pay.
The murders there opened two days after a gunman 380 miles to the south opened fire at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a club frequented mostly by older patrons of Asian descent in Monterey Park.
In addition to the 11 people killed, nine were wounded in Saturday night’s gunfire.
Authorities said the attacker, who is, Huu Can Tran, aged 72, drove a short time later to a second dance hall, where that club’s operator disarmed him before he could open fire.
The next morning, Tran shot himself to death behind the wheel of his vehicle as police closed in on him south of Los Angeles.
Although his motive is still unclear, Tran was a known regular of the Star Ballroom. A tenant of a Los Angeles rental property he owned suggested that Tran may have been nursing a grudge against other patrons.
Both rages were distinguished for the suspects’ age, much older than typical in deadly mass shootings that have grown all too commonplace in the United States.
Authorities also said that both of the gunmen used a semi-automatic pistol.