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.
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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.