Half Moon Bay CL shooting, The tragic shooting that took place this week at a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay, located in northern California, was not the first time workers at that location witnessed gun violence. In point of fact, one of the former owners of the farm claims that the individual who is suspected of carrying out the mass shooting on Monday, Chunli Zhao, was present at the farm during the earlier incident and filmed the aftermath of the shooting.
On July 3, 2022, a day after the incident, Zhao sent a video to his former boss Huizhong Li on WeChat, a Chinese social media app. The video was sent to the Mandarin service of the Voice of America by Li, who does not currently reside in the San Francisco Bay area. According to court documents provided by the office of the District Attorney for San Mateo County, one farm manager had threatened to kill another and fired bullets into the man’s trailer. The incident occurred in April of this year. Nobody was hurt in any way.
Zhao provided narration in Chinese as he walked through mobile homes on the farm in Half Moon Bay. He explained how 9 mm bullets whizzed through the exterior walls and windows of the mobile homes housing other farm workers at California Terra Garden, a commercial mushroom grower. He demonstrated how one bullet was able to penetrate a window as well as several cardboard boxes before becoming lodged in the interior walls. As the video played, Zhao could be heard saying, “Let the whole world know about America’s gun violence.” We do not have the slightest sense of security. There were bullets flying in every direction.”
During that same conversation, Zhao showed Li a video of himself firing rounds from a handgun at a nearby shooting range. I watched the video. Fast forward another six months, and now Zhao, 66, is being investigated as a suspect in the most recent and deadliest shooting, which resulted in the deaths of seven people. Zhao made his initial court appearance on Wednesday afternoon in San Mateo County, where he was charged with eight counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and other related charges in connection with a series of shootings that occurred on Monday.