DA confirms report shooter was triggered by $100 equipment bill
Days after a disgruntled coworker killed seven people in Half Moon Bay, family members and co-workers of the victims returned to the mushroom farm where the massacre — now said to have started over a dispute over a $100 equipment bill to the shooter — to commemorate their loved ones and chart a path to recovery.
“We come today to reclaim this place of death as a place of life, peace, hope, and community,” said Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone before he sprinkled water on the ground and on the heads of the roughly dozen people in attendance.
Before the shooting on Jan. 23, 35 people worked at the California Terra Garden and some of them lived in a collection of dilapidated trailers and make-shift homes, where they paid $300 a month in rent, according to a company spokesperson. Among their neighbors was Chunli Zhao, 66, who drove a forklift and lived there for seven years before he embarked on the deadliest mass shooting in San Mateo County history.
Servando Martinez's brother Marciano Martinez, who tried to immerse himself in the community, is among the victims. “He was always with us in bad times and good times,” Servando Martinez said. “I would've liked that he would be with us longer but someone took him away.”
As the farm worker community reels from the shooting, some of the employees have already returned to work, according to Virginia Chang Kiraly, board president of the National Alliance for Mental Health in San Mateo,
who met with survivors on Jan. 27.
“They might be doing some cursorily level stuff (Friday),” said David Oates, a spokesperson for California Terra Garden when asked about the working situation. “But we could be back (running) tomorrow.”
New details about what apparently set Zhao off emerged Jan. 27.
Zhao has told investigators that he was enraged by a $100 equipment bill from his boss for damage to heavy construction equipment, which sparked the shooting spree, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, who confirmed an earlier report from NBC Bay Area.
Shortly before the shooting, Zhao vented his frustrations at the supervisor and a coworker whom Zhao blamed for a collision between his forklift and a bulldozer, according to the TV report later confirmed by Wagstaffe. After the confrontation, he allegedly shot the supervisor and the coworker.
Zhao then went to the coworker's trailer and allegedly killed his wife before shooting two more people at California Terra Garden. He then drove to Concord Farms and killed a former assistant manager who he felt wronged by and another couple, according to the NBC Bay Area report.
Oates declined to comment on the alleged dispute over the $100 bill, but he said the company might charge for negligent damages on a “caseby-case” basis.
“In general, it would be an extreme circumstance where somebody knowingly, purposefully damaged something that you're going to see the company look at that,” he said.
A pair of sisters told the
Bay Area News Group they watched Zhao initiate the shooting spree through their car's windshield.
“He was laughing, he was smiling,” said one of the sisters, Erlin Ortiz. “We saw him get on the forklift, and when he turned to see us, he was making fun of the situation.”
Zhao admitted to the killings in a jailhouse interview with NBC Bay Area and expressed remorse. He is being held in the Redwood City jail on seven counts of murder and one of attempted murder, with numerous sentencing enhancements. Zhao faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
As the investigation into the shooting continues, pressure is mounting on California Terra Garden, where the shooting started over living conditions widely denounced by politicians and squalor. On Friday, San Mateo County sent officials to both California Terra Garden and Concord Farms to assess living conditions.
Oates, the California Terra Garden spokesman, acknowledged that the current living conditions are poor but he claimed that images of decrepit housing are the result of damage done by law enforcement's multi-day investigation. The employees and the families remain at a hotel through Monday as the company seeks alternative housing.
“We discovered all of the damage that was done in those living quarters after law enforcement conducted a thorough investigation,” he said. “And so that's why the employees and their families have not returned to those facilities.”