Dispute over $100 repair bill may have played a role in Half Moon Bay shootings that left 7 dead, district attorney says

CNN
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A dispute over a $100 repair bill may have contributed to two shootings that left seven people dead and another injured last week in Half Moon Bay, Calif., the San Mateo County District Attorney told a local news station. .

Chunli Zhao – the farm worker who faces seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in connection with the attack – “had a dispute with the first victim regarding a $100 bill” over the cost of repairing farm equipment involved in an accident in the California Terra Garden, the mushroom farm where Zhao worked, lived and reportedly killed his first four victims, Steve Wagstaffe told broadcaster KTVU.

“We feel that no conduct is justified,” Wagstaffe said. “But we have a lot to learn.”

Wagstaffe’s comments came shortly after Zhao, 66, is said to have admitted in an interview with NBC Bay Area News to carrying out the shooting, which stunned the coastal town of Half Moon Bay amid a spate of mass shootings in California that have killed 19. lives in about 44 hours. .

CNN was unable to independently confirm what Zhao said in the interview and reached out to his lawyers for comment.

The statements the suspect made to police “were consistent with what he told reporters,” Wagstaffe told CNN on Monday, referring to the NBC Bay Area News interview.

“But I’m not stating a fact that (the $100 bill dispute) triggered the shooting,” he said. “A lot more research to do. But it is certainly what Zhao is saying.”

Last Monday, officers responded to the mushroom farm to find four people dead and one injured, before finding three more dead at a separate location about 2 miles away, officials said.

Zhao, a Chinese national, was a “co-worker or former co-worker” of the victims and allegedly targeted specific people, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus told CNN, characterizing the attack as a ” incident of violence in the workplace”.

In a 15-minute interview conducted in Mandarin, Zhao told NBC Bay Area’s Janelle Wang that he wasn’t in his right mind and didn’t know “what was going on mentally” when the shooting took place, Wang said. The suspect expressed remorse and said he regretted the attacks, telling the reporter that he believes he has some sort of mental illness that he has been battling for some time.

In a statement last week, a spokesperson for California Terra Garden said all employees “had background checks and there was nothing to indicate that anything like this was a possibility,” adding that the company did not know anything about why Zhao.

The shooting claimed the life of Yetao Bing, 43; Qizhong Cheng, 66; Marciano Martinez Jiménez, 50; Aixiang Zhang, 74; Jingzhi Lu, 64; and Zhishen Liu, 73; according to the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office. The seventh victim has been tentatively identified, but the office withheld the name pending positive identification and notification of next of kin.

Among the dead were five Chinese nationals, according to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco.

Zhao’s arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 16, when he is expected to file a confession.