The Half Moon Bay shooting was prompted by a $100 repair bill, local prosecutor says - NPR

FBI officials locomotion towards the transgression country astatine Mountain Mushroom Farm, connected Jan. 24, 2023, aft a gunman killed respective radical astatine 2 cultivation businesses successful Half Moon Bay, Calif. Aaron Kehoe/AP hide caption

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Aaron Kehoe/AP

FBI officials locomotion towards the transgression country astatine Mountain Mushroom Farm, connected Jan. 24, 2023, aft a gunman killed respective radical astatine 2 cultivation businesses successful Half Moon Bay, Calif.

Aaron Kehoe/AP

SAN FRANCISCO — A farmworker charged with sidesplitting 7 radical astatine 2 Half Moon Bay mushroom farms reportedly told investigators helium was spurred to transportation retired the shootings aft his supervisor demanded helium wage $100 to repair a forklift damaged astatine work.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe confirmed to the Bay Area News Group Friday that Chunli Zhao was enraged by the instrumentality bill, saying that a co-worker was to blasted for the collision betwixt his forklift and the co-worker's bulldozer.

KNTV-TV, the NBC affiliate successful the San Francisco Bay Area, was archetypal to study the development.

Authorities accidental Zhao, 66, changeable and killed 4 workers and wounded a 5th worker Monday astatine California Terra Garden. He past went to adjacent Concord Farms, wherever helium had worked previously, and fatally changeable 3 erstwhile co-workers.

Zhao told KNTV-TV successful a courthouse interrogation Thursday that helium committed the shootings. He said helium was bullied and worked agelong hours connected the farms and his complaints were ignored, the presumption reported.

On Monday, Zhao vented to his supervisor astir the bill, but the supervisor insisted helium needed to pay. Zhao past allegedly changeable the supervisor and the co-worker, the quality outlets reported.

Speaking successful Mandarin, Zhao told the tv presumption from a region jailhouse successful Redwood City that helium has been successful the U.S. for 11 years and has a greenish card. He said helium has a 40-year-old girl successful China and lived with his woman successful Half Moon Bay.

The coroner's bureau has named six of the victims: Zhishen Liu, 73, of San Francisco; Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50, of Moss Beach, California; 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 hometown was unknown.

The charging documents identified Jose Romero Perez arsenic the different idiosyncratic killed and Pedro Romero Perez arsenic the eighth victim, who survived.