Suspect charged with 7 counts of murder
Accused gunman held without bail; seven victims identified in San Mateo County's deadliest mass shooting
The man accused of killing seven Half Moon Bay farmworkers made his first appearance in court on Wednesday, staying largely silent and attempting to shield his face with a piece of paper from a courtroom packed with onlookers.
As prosecutors unfurled a laundry list of charges, authorities revealed the names of the seven victims.
Wearing a red jail jumpsuit and seated behind glass, Chunli Zhao, 66, only uttered one word, “yes,” through a Mandarin interpreter when San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Susan Jakubowski asked to confirm his name.
Zhao will enter his plea of guilty or not guilty at a subsequent hearing on Feb. 16.
Jakubowski ruled that he would be kept in jail without the option to post bail.
“We are dealing with great harm to the community,” San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said during the hearing. “There is really no reasonable alternative other than him being detained with no bail.”
Wednesday's short hearing is the opening stage in what will likely be lengthy legal proceedings against Zhao.
Earlier on Wednesday, prosecutors announced seven counts of murder and one of attempted murder, along with numerous sentencing enhancements for each charge, including firearm use enhancements and a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.
The charges carry a potential sentence of life without the possibility of parole, although Wagstaffe
left open the possibility of pursuing the death penalty. Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a moratorium on executions. However, prosecutors are still free to pursue the sentence.
“We have so much more to learn about this individual, about the victims and their families and the harm that's been inflicted here,” Wagstaffe said.
“So we have a long way to go” before making that decision.
Zhao's alleged attack is the latest in a string of mass shootings to hit the Bay Area, including at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in 2019, a San Jose rail yard in 2021 and Oikos University in Oakland in 2012. This week's onslaught of violence has left
Bay Area lawmakers once again searching for ways to tighten California's gun control laws, already the strictest in the nation.
Wagstaffe was adamant that Zhao's rampage was not inspired by a mass shooting in Monterey Park on Saturday where a 72-yearold man is suspected of killing 11 people and then himself. Law enforcement has said evidence gathered thus far points to the Half Moon Bay shootings being a case of “workplace violence.”
Prosecutors are piecing together a picture of the carnage that has upended life among the small community of Latino and Asian farmworkers that live in Half Moon Bay. According to Wagstaffe, they know the order in which the victims were shot and killed by Zhao, who used a legally purchased semiautomatic Ruger.
Zhao, a Chinese national, has lived in the region for at least a decade. For seven years he has resided at the mushroom farm where he is suspected of beginning
the shooting rampage and killing four people before moving to a second farm and killing three people.
After arresting Zhao outside a sheriff's substation Monday, authorities found a handwritten note in his car, Wagstaffe said. The DA declined to reveal its contents.
As Zhao awaited arraignment in his first court appearance on Wednesday, San Mateo County officials released the identities of seven people killed in the shootings: Zhishen Liu, 73, San Francisco; Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50, Moss Beach; Aixiang Zhang, 74, San Francisco; Qizhong Cheng, 66, Half Moon Bay; Yetao Bing, 43, unknown residence; Jingzhi Lu, 65, Half Moon Bay; and Jose Romero Perez, 38, unknown residence.
Romero Perez's brother, Pedro Romero Perez, was wounded in the shooting but is in “stable” condition at a hospital, family and authorities said. The brothers are from Oaxaca, Mexico.
As Zhao awaited arraignment, details about his living situation and alleged violent history were brought to the surface. He and
his wife lived at a property formerly known as Mountain Mushroom Farms. Law enforcement officials described Zhao, who also worked at the mushroom farm located off Highway 92, as a “disgruntled worker.”
The Bay Area News Group obtained court records from nearly a decade ago detailing alleged violent actions and threats by Zhao against a former roommate and co-worker. In a civil harassment restraining order filed in March 2013, the petitioner claimed Zhao attempted to suffocate them with a pillow, adding Zhao “said to me, `Today I am going to kill you,' ” according to the sworn court declaration.
The ex-roommate also claimed Zhao threatened to “use a kitchen knife to split my head.”
David Oates, a spokesperson for California Terra Garden, which took over the Mountain Mushroom Farm in March 2022, said there was “nothing” about Zhao that could have signaled the coming carnage to management.