Half Moon Bay Shooting: Suspect Faces Charges as Community Reels From Deaths - The New York Times

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Marciano Martinez Jimenez arrived much than 2 decades agone from Oaxaca, Mexico, and learned everything helium could astatine a Half Moon Bay mushroom farm, from irrigation to delivery, mastering the skills to the constituent that helium was entrusted with moving regular operations.

José Romero Perez was a much caller accomplishment but was greeted by his chap Oaxacans arsenic family. He leaned connected chap immigrants who spoke his languages, Spanish and Zapotec, the second commonly spoken successful Oaxaca, to navigate his caller terrain successful California.

On Wednesday, the tiny migrant assemblage successful Half Moon Bay was reeling from the wide shooting 2 days earlier that near Mr. Jimenez and Mr. Perez dead, on with 5 different victims who worked connected farms adjacent the tiny coastal municipality that is amended known for its large surfing waves and a fashionable pumpkin festival.

“I can’t recognize truthful overmuch hate, to termination 7 people,” said Mireya Bautista, 46, a chap migrant who had gotten to cognize the men who enactment successful the hongera, oregon mushroom, farms that attracted migrant workers from Mexico and China. “Why would idiosyncratic bash thing similar this?”

The 7 dormant victims, on with Mr. Perez’s brother, who is recovering from gunshot injuries successful a Bay Area hospital, were identified connected Wednesday morning. Hours later, the fishy successful the rampage, Zhao Chunli, 66, appeared successful tribunal successful Redwood City to look 7 counts of execution and 1 complaint of attempted murder. He did not participate a plea.

The spate of killings successful Half Moon Bay near 2 transgression scenes: 1 astatine California Terra Garden, wherever the fishy lived and worked with his wife, and a 2nd nursery, Concord Farms, astir a mile distant and wherever Mr. Zhao had antecedently worked, the constabulary said. Every idiosyncratic changeable was specifically targeted, Sheriff Christina Corpus of San Mateo County said successful an interview.

“Other radical were successful his enactment of sight, but helium didn’t people them due to the fact that what we’re learning is they didn’t truly person a batch of interaction with him,” she said.

After the shootings, arsenic deputies were hunting for the accused gunman, they recovered his cellphone lying connected the broadside of a highway, suggesting helium had disposed of it to thwart instrumentality enforcement from tracking him, Sheriff Corpus said. Deputies apprehended Mr. Zhao aft discovering him sitting successful his car successful a parking batch adjacent a sheriff’s station, wherever helium was lying backmost successful the beforehand spot with the limb — a semiautomatic pistol — connected the rider seat, she said.

In summation to the 50-year-old Mr. Jimenez of Moss Beach, Calif., 5 of the deceased victims were named by the San Mateo County Office of the Coroner arsenic Zhishen Liu, 73, of San Francisco; Aixiang Zhang, 74, of San Francisco; Qizhong Cheng, 66, of Half Moon Bay; Jingzhi Lu, 64, of Half Moon Bay; and Yetao Bing, 43, whose residence was not known.

Mr. Perez and his injured brother, Pedro Romero Perez, were identified by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office successful a ailment filed up of a little tribunal quality by Mr. Zhao that ended with a justice scheduling an arraignment for Feb. 16. Mr. Zhao, who was being detained without bail, wore a reddish jumpsuit and repeatedly covered his look with a portion of paper.

Speaking to reporters aft the hearing, Steve Wagstaffe, the San Mateo County territory attorney, said Mr. Zhao, who has been assigned a court-appointed attorney, had spoken to investigators for respective hours, describing what happened “in a matter-of-fact way.” He said prosecutors present person a consciousness of the motive, but helium declined to uncover specifics.

“I would accidental the grievances that helium had were personal,” Mr. Wagstaffe said, adding “as opposed to, say, a quality astir why’s my workload heavier. It was much personal.”

Mr. Zhao’s lawyer could not beryllium reached for comment.

Mr. Wagstaffe said helium would see seeking the decease punishment successful the case. “Making that determination connected the decease punishment is thing that volition instrumentality spot implicit the people of the adjacent galore months,” helium said. “We person truthful overmuch much to learn.”

If helium were to question the decease penalty, it would beryllium a mostly symbolic decision. While California has the largest decease enactment successful the country, with 690 condemned inmates, the authorities has not carried retired an execution since 2006, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a moratorium connected superior punishment.

The massacre successful Half Moon Bay came conscionable 2 days aft a gunman stormed a fashionable ballroom creation hallway successful Monterey Park, an Asian American enclave hundreds of miles distant successful Southern California, and killed 11 radical celebrating the Lunar New Year. The suspect, Huu Can Tran, 72, changeable himself dormant erstwhile approached by the constabulary successful different suburb astir 30 miles away, authorities said.

Investigators successful Los Angeles County are inactive trying to find a motive successful the Monterey Park killings, but the authorities successful some cases accidental the suspects seemingly decided to settee chartless grievances against circumstantial radical with a spasm of violence.

Tucked disconnected Highways 92 and 1, the farms successful the Half Moon Bay country wherever the killings occurred turn a bounty of vegetables, from mushrooms to brussels sprouts to artichokes, arsenic good arsenic flowers. And galore farmworkers, successful a portion wherever the terms of a emblematic location is good implicit a cardinal dollars, marque astir $15 an hr and unrecorded successful trailers oregon packed into choky homes whose rent swallows overmuch of their earnings.

The workers and their families from the 2 farms, who had already suffered from the fierce rainstorms that flooded fields and washed distant roads, remained successful hotels connected Wednesday, and it was unclear erstwhile they would beryllium capable to instrumentality to their trailers — and adjacent if they would privation to aft what they person been through.

“I don’t deliberation they volition consciousness harmless returning to the farm,” said Judith Guerrero, enforcement manager of the Coastside Hope, a nonprofit that assists the migrant community. “They are trying to marque consciousness of it all.”

David Oates, a crisis-management advisor hired by the proprietor of California Terra Garden aft the massacre, said that Mr. Zhao had been renting a trailer connected the workplace spot wherever helium worked for years. The institution employs 35 radical astatine the tract erstwhile known arsenic Mountain Mushroom Farm. Four of them were killed, and 1 remains successful the hospital, Mr. Oates said.

Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, the manager of the Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, a nonprofit that works with migrant farmworkers, said that arsenic acold arsenic she knew determination were nary tensions betwixt the tiny radical of farmworkers of Asian descent, and those who are Latino. “They unrecorded successful the aforesaid community,” she said. “There’s a batch of respect there.”

Aaron Tung, whose household has owned Concord Farms since 1987, said that everyone called Mr. Jimenez, “Ma Ding,” — the Chinese words for “horse” and “nail,” a escaped rendering of his past name.

Elsewhere successful the assemblage connected Wednesday, residents and tourists passed through, stopping astatine a memorial tract successful the halfway of town, leaving bouquets of flowers.

“They are much than the hands that prime our food,” said Kati McHugh, a longtime resident. “I wanted to marque definite radical cognize them by name.”

Reporting was contributed by Miriam Jordan, Isabelle Qian, Anabel Sosa, Muyi Xiao and Livia Albeck-Ripka. Kitty Bennett contributed research.