The Chinese farm worker accused of shooting dead seven people and wounding another in Northern California’s Half Moon Bay area carried out the massacre over a $100 bill for damaged equipment, the city’s district attorney revealed.
San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe made the disclosure on Friday, corroborating a claim made in a recent prison interview by Chunli Zhao – a 66-year-old forklift operator at one of the two farms attacked during the attack.
The shooting happened last Monday and was the third to strike the Golden State in as many days – and members of the small coastal community outside of San Francisco struggled to understand the tragedy.
Finally, speaking to a new Bay Area branch, Wagstaffe gave insight into Zhao’s motives for the attack on his employer, California Terra Garden Farm, and the nearby Concord Farms, two days after he was charged in Redwood City.
Chunli Zhao – a 66-year-old forklift driver at one of the farms targeted by the attack – is said to have carried out the attack over a dispute with his boss over a bill for damaged equipment
San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe made the disclosure on Friday, confirming a claim Zhao had already made in a recent prison interview
The report, released by the Bay Area News Group on Friday, was based on a claim Zhao made from jail this week in which he admitted he committed the killing spree over a bill from his boss for damages that caused by a collision between Zhao’s forklift and a passenger. worker bulldozer.
The damage totaled $100, Zhao said — a sum apparently enough to fan the flames of his pent-up anger.
Zhao – who had argued that his colleague was responsible for the damage – went on to tell how the Chinese immigrant stormed the farm where he had worked for six years and shot dead both the manager and the colleague involved in the disagreement were.
Speaking to the Bay Area publication on Friday, Wagstaffe confirmed that Zhao’s account of the day’s events was legitimate.
The shooting happened at California Terra Garden Farm last Monday and was the third to strike the Golden State in as many days. Four of the victims were shot at the farm where Zhao worked for six years and three others at Mountain Mushroom Farms, two miles away
The third shooting to hit the Golden State in as many days left members of the coastal community outside of San Francisco struggling to understand the killings in the wake of the tragedy
The revelation comes as investigators had already expressed a belief that the shootings may have been the result of a workplace dispute in which all eight victims were “deliberately targeted”. It also comes as the partner of one of those killed by Zhao came forward on Tuesday to confirm her loved one was among the dead.
“I’m still scared and trying to find out what happened,” the first witness told CNN Tuesday of how he ran for cover with other farm workers when the suspect opened fire, killing four of his colleagues. Then he added: “I don’t understand.”
The witness further revealed to the outlet that he had worked with Zhao on the farm for about six years prior to the tragedy — a claim backed by an employee who spoke to ABC, who said Zhao had been on the farm for between five and six years worked as a forklift driver for years.
In addition, the witness said, after carrying the first part of the massacre, Zhao fled the scene in a forklift and traveled two miles away to Mountain Mushroom Farms to claim three more lives.
Still struggling to understand the tragedy, the survivor said he saw Zhao as “friendly” and “a nice guy” and had no idea what “his problem with these guys” was in terms of victims.
He added that he initially tried to hide when the first shots rang out, followed by several terrified colleagues at the farm, which has about two dozen workers in total.
Heartbreakingly, he said he saw one of the victims allegedly shot by Zhao outside a greenhouse, but after seeing how profusely he was bleeding, he realized “it was too late.”
Investigators later found another victim in the greenhouse, the witness said, adding that both victims, like the suspect, were Chinese men.
The source said that after the shooting stopped, he saw the suspect drive away in a forklift. He asked not to be named because of the ongoing police investigation.
On Tuesday, police confirmed there were reports from witnesses and those who knew Zhao that suggested he may have been upset –