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

CNN  — 

A quality implicit a $100 repair measure whitethorn person contributed to a brace of shootings that near 7 radical dormant and different injured past week successful Half Moon Bay, California, the San Mateo County territory lawyer told a section quality station.

Chunli Zhao – the farmworker who faces 7 counts of execution and 1 number of attempted execution successful transportation to the onslaught – “had a quality with the archetypal unfortunate regarding a $100 bill” for the outgo of repairing a portion of workplace instrumentality progressive successful an mishap astatine California Terra Garden, the mushroom workplace wherever Zhao worked, lived and allegedly killed his archetypal 4 victims, Steve Wagstaffe told presumption KTVU.

“We consciousness nary of the behaviour is justified,” Wagstaffe said. “But we’ve got a batch to learn.”

Wagstaffe’s comments came soon aft Zhao, 66, reportedly admitted successful an interrogation with NBC Bay Area News to carrying retired the shootings, which stunned the coastal metropolis of Half Moon Bay amid a spate of wide shootings successful California that claimed 19 lives implicit astir 44 hours.

CNN has not been capable to corroborate independently what Zhao said successful the interrogation and has reached retired to his attorneys for comment.

Statements the fishy made to instrumentality enforcement “were accordant with what helium told the reporters,” Wagstaffe told CNN connected Monday, referring to the NBC Bay Area News interview.

“But I americium not declaring it a information that (the $100 measure dispute) sparked the shooting,” helium said. “Much much probe to do. But it is surely what Zhao is saying.”

Last Monday, officers responded to the mushroom workplace to find 4 radical dormant and 1 wounded, earlier uncovering 3 much dormant astatine a abstracted tract astir 2 miles away, officials person said.

Zhao, a Chinese citizen, was a “coworker oregon erstwhile coworker” of the victims, and helium allegedly targeted circumstantial people, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus told CNN, characterizing the onslaught arsenic a “workplace unit incident.”

In a 15-minute interrogation conducted successful Mandarin, Zhao told NBC Bay Area’s Janelle Wang helium wasn’t successful his close caput and didn’t cognize “what was happening mentally” erstwhile the shootings occurred, Wang said. The fishy expressed remorse and said helium regrets the attacks, telling the newsman helium believes helium has immoderate benignant of intelligence unwellness that helium has struggled with for a while.

In a connection past week, a spokesperson for California Terra Garden said each employees “had inheritance checks, and determination was thing to bespeak thing similar this was adjacent a possibility,” adding the institution knew thing of Zhao’s motive.

The shooting claimed the lives of Yetao Bing, 43; Qizhong Cheng, 66; Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50; Aixiang Zhang, 74; Jingzhi Lu, 64; and Zhishen Liu, 73; per the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office. The seventh unfortunate was tentatively identified, but the bureau withheld the sanction pending affirmative recognition and the notification of the adjacent of kin.

Among the dormant were 5 Chinese citizens, according to China’s consulate successful San Francisco.

Zhao’s arraignment is scheduled for February 16, erstwhile helium is expected to participate a plea.