7 killed in shooting in Half Moon Bay, California

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks Tuesday, January 24, at the I.D.E.S. Portuguese Hall in Half Moon Bay, California. (

“Republican obstruction” on the federal level is preventing any form of gun control from becoming law, California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN, saying we are “only good as our weakest link.” 

Newsom, a Democrat, said that while people are dying from shootings, Republicans are working on culture war items like content in advanced placement courses or whether to use the word “Latinx.”  

“We’ve chosen this, this is our decision, to live in these conditions,” he said, adding that Republicans do this under the guise of freedom. 

Rep. Anna Eshoo

The farm workers shot in Half Moon Bay “were killed with purpose, with intent, execution-style,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo in a news conference on Tuesday. 

Eshoo insisted that the issue of gun violence in the US remains “unfinished business.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom

California Gov. Gavin Newsom described mass shootings as a phenomenon that is so inherently American that some of the Chinese immigrants he met with in the wake of the massacre in Half Moon Bay didn’t know how to comprehend what happened.

The governor said their translator didn’t know how to accurately convey what many of the people who were caught in the shooting were witnessing and thinking.

The governor thanked first responders and local officials for their swift actions during and in the shooting’s aftermath.

He also touted the state’s strict gun laws, saying, “gun safety works. We will not back away from that resolve.”

Three of California’s State Assembly members who represent San Mateo County said they would keep pushing for laws that will reduce gun violence incidents like those that happened in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park over the past few days.

The Half Moon Bay community’s sense of peace “was destroyed by senseless death,” Assemblymember Marc Berman said, noting that there are workplace disagreements and relationship disagreements happen all over the world.

“But it’s only in the United States where far too often those disagreements end in mass shootings,” he said, promising that the state will do everything possible to further reduce such incidents.

Some context: California already has the strongest gun laws in the country, according to the advocacy groups Everytown for Gun Safety and The Giffords Law Center.

The semi-automatic handgun believed to have been used by the Half Moon Bay suspect was legally purchased and owned, authorities said. The origin of the weapons used by the suspect in Monterey Park is being investigated by authorities.

Nearly a decade before he allegedly went on a killing spree at two Northern California mushroom farms, the suspected gunman was accused of trying to suffocate and threatening to murder a former coworker at another job.

Police say Chunli Zhao fatally shot seven people, including some of his fellow employees, at two mushroom farms on Monday. But it wasn’t the first time he was accused of violence against someone he worked with, court records obtained by CNN show. 

Zhao was subject to a temporary restraining order after a former coworker and roommate accused him of attacking and threatening him in 2013. 

Yingjiu Wang, who worked with Zhao at a restaurant and lived with him in a San Jose apartment, wrote in a court declaration that Zhao’s violent behavior started after Zhao quit his job at their shared workplace in March 2013. 

Early in the morning two days later, Zhao came into Wang’s room and asked for his salary. When Wang told him to pick it up at the restaurant, Zhao said he would kill Wang, and then “took a pillow and started to cover my face and suffocate me,” Wang wrote.

While he couldn’t breathe, Wang wrote, “I used all my might within the few seconds to push him away with my blanket.”

He said that he called for help and another roommate came to the door, but that Zhao had locked it. The two men ended up wrestling on Wang’s bed before Zhao calmed down, according to Wang.

Two days later, he wrote, Zhao threatened him again, saying that “he can use a knife to cut my head if he can’t come back to work.” Wang wrote that he had no control over Zhao’s work status at the restaurant. 

A judge issued a temporary restraining order against Zhao, which prevented him from getting too close to Wang and also banned him from owning or buying a gun, according to the court paperwork. The restraining order expired in July 2013.  

The incident was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

An attorney for Zhao in the 2013 complaint did not respond to requests for comment. Wang could not be reached for comment. 

The FBI sent in technical and forensic support to assist the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office to assist in their investigation of the mass shooting.

“We are now transitioning to providing victim services, and are in the process of identifying resources to help victims of this mass casualty event,” said Robert Tripp, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Francisco field office.

Tripp was speaking at a news conference Tuesday in Half Moon Bay.

San Mateo Sheriff Christina Corpus

San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus clarified that five men and two women were killed by the gunman in Half Moon Bay shootings.

One man who was also shot is in stable condition in hospital, she said during a news conference Tuesday.

Earlier, officials had reported the victims comprised seven men and a woman, one of whom was hospitalized.

Earlier, the sheriff’s office noted that the 66-year-old suspect was an employee at the mushroom farm where one of the incidents occurred, and evidence points to it being an instance of workplace violence. The victims were of Asian and Hispanic descent and possible coworkers, officials said.

The San Mateo County sheriff’s department and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are holding a news conference on the Half Moon Bay mass shooting.

The gunman in a shooting that left a total of seven people dead over two locations in Half Moon Bay, California, lived at the property where four of the victims were killed, according to a company spokesperson.

The site, formerly known as Mountain Mushroom Farm, was acquired by a company called California Terra Garden in March 2022, spokesperson David Oates, told CNN.

There are three mobile homes and six trailers for employees on the property, and the suspected gunman, Chunli Zhao, lived there since at least then, the spokesperson said.

Zhao started working at the farm prior to Terra Garden acquiring it, and was one of about 35 employees, according to Oates.  

“Everyone had background checks, and there was nothing to indicate anything like this was even a possibility,” he said. 

The farm grows mushrooms and “other food-grade herbs like basil, oregano, those kind of things… predominantly mushrooms sold on the retail and wholesale side,” Oates said.  

The owners of the farm are bringing in grief counselors for all the employees, Oates said. “Their goal right now is to try to bring everybody together to start a long healing process. They look at team members more like family,” he said. 

Law enforcement officials investigate a property following a mass shooting on January 23 in Half Moon Bay, California.

Seven people were killed and one person critically injured Monday in shootings at two separate locations in a small coastal community in the San Francisco Bay area, becoming the state’s second mass shooting in three days, officials said.

Chunli Zhao, the 66-year-old suspect, was taken into custody more than two hours after the shootings in Half Moon Bay, according to San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus.

The San Mateo County victims were either Asian or Hispanic, Corpus said.

The killings mark California’s second massacre in three days involving Asian American victims and suspects. 

Here’s what we know about the deadly shooting:

 Read more about the investigation here.

The post was updated with new details on the gender breakdown of the victims.

Law enforcement personnel work at the scene of shooting at Mountain Mushroom Farm on January 24.

An employee of a California mushroom farm where a gunman shot and killed four people Monday described how he ran for cover with other workers as the assailant opened fire and then fled the scene on a forklift. 

The witness told CNN he had known the suspect, identified by law enforcement as 66-year-old Chunli Zhao for about six years, as they were coworkers. He had considered him “very friendly” and “a nice guy,” and added that he had no idea of what might have prompted the fatal assault or “what was his problem with these guys,” referring to the victims.

The employee said Tuesday that when he heard gunshots ring out he tried to hide with several of his co-workers, worrying that the gunman might start coming for them. 

He said he ran to one victim outside of a greenhouse but noticed how much he was bleeding and realized “it was too late.”

Investigators later found another victim inside the greenhouse, he added, saying both victims were Chinese men.

After the gunfire ended, the witness said he saw the suspect drive off on a forklift.  

Roughly two dozen people work at the farm, according to the witness. About a half dozen are Chinese and the rest are Latino immigrants. He said the two groups did not speak one another’s language and communicated through hand gestures or a translator.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will visit Half Moon Bay to meet with family members of the seven people killed in the latest deadly mass shooting, according to his office.

Newsom met with families and victims of the Monterey Park mass shooting on Sunday and Monday.

Police officers detain a man, believed by law enforcement to be the Half Moon Bay mass shooting suspect, in Half Moon Bay, California, on January 23.

When police in Half Moon Bay announced a news conference about a mass shooting in the area, Kati McHugh decided to attend, not expecting that she would witness the arrest of the suspect — or that the suspect would park his vehicle next to her own.

McHugh recalled seeing police cars, fire trucks — every first responder — driving fast down the roads on Monday. It was her first indication that something was happening in the northern California community. 

She and a few others, including members of the press, were milling around in the parking lot before the news conference was set to take place at a San Mateo County sheriff’s substation.  

She said she remembered seeing the suspect’s maroon SUV drive into the parking lot. Even though she knew police were searching for a maroon SUV, it didn’t even occur to her it could be that vehicle. 

The suspect’s driving in the parking lot did catch her attention — he had stopped short at one point — but she said he eventually parked the car. It was in the space next to hers. 

McHugh went back to her car and then a number of police officers came out from a building and told her to move away.

That’s when she began to realize what was going on. 

A photojournalist near her car took a knee; McHugh backed away and took cover behind a tree. 

“I thought a tree was a good option,” she said as she took a video of the arrest of the suspect that was shared widely.

The footage shows officers with their weapons drawn approaching the vehicle, the suspect emerge and the officers pulling him to the ground and handcuffing him. Police vehicles race into the parking lot and surround the scene. The second video shows police walking the handcuffed suspect toward the substation.

The only known connection between the victims in Monday’s shootings in Half Moon Bay and the suspect is that they may have been coworkers, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

Chunli Zhao, 66, was an employee at the Mountain Mushroom Farm, the first location of shootings, the sheriff said. Seven people were killed between two locations. One victim was taken to a local hospital and is out of surgery and stable, Corpus said.

San Mateo County sheriff deputies walk through a farm, where a mass shooting occurred, on January 24 in Half Moon Bay, California.

Seven men and one woman were shot by a gunman in two separate locations in Half Moon Bay, California, Monday, said Lt. Eamonn Allen of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department at a news conference.

Allen said the victims were of Asian and Hispanic descent.

Seven of the victims were killed and one was injured — it is not clear the gender of the survivor. The injured victim was taken to the hospital and is out of surgery and stable, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said.

Later on Tuesday, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office issued a news release with updated details on the fatalities. It said there were seven fatalities, comprising five men and two women. The surviving shooting victim is a man, it said.

CNN’s Stella Chan contributed reporting to this post.

The post has been updated with new details on the gender breakdown of the victims.

San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus speaks during a press conference on January 24 in Redwood City, California.

San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said officials believe the shooting in Half Moon Bay was an instance of workplace violence.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, she said the only known connection between the victims and suspect is that they “may have been coworkers.”

“All evidence we have points to this being an instance of workplace violence. The Mountain Mushroom Farm, the first location, is where the subject was employed,” she said.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe speaks during a press conference on January 24 in Redwood City, California.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Tuesday that the suspect will be arraigned in court tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. local time.

Wagstaffe said in a news conference that the charges have not yet been determined and that decision will be made later today or tomorrow morning. Wagstaffe noted that “obviously” the charges will involve the homicides that took place.

He added that the case is at the very beginning stages.

The news conference is ongoing.

Officials are giving an update on the mass shooting that killed seven people Monday at two separate locations in Half Moon Bay, California.

The sheriff is expected to talk about the arrest of the suspect, who appeared to target individuals. He was taken into custody after a sheriff’s deputy located him in his vehicle in the parking lot of a sheriff’s substation, she said.

The Half Moon Bay shooting suspect used a gun that was registered to him and had legal possession of a semi-automatic weapon, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus told CNN.

Corpus said Zhao appeared to target the individuals he shot.

“We’re still learning more about this individual but there was nothing that would have elevated” any concern about him before the shooting, she said.

At least seven people were killed and one person critically injured Monday in shootings at two separate locations in the small coastal community in the San Francisco Bay area.

Authorities believe Zhao acted alone, with Corpus noting a motive was not known Monday night.

A San Mateo County sheriff deputy blocks the entrance to a farm on January 24 in Half Moon Bay, California.

At least seven people were killed and one critically injured in shootings at two locations Monday in Half Moon Bay, California, officials said. The suspect, identified as 66-year-old Chunli Zhao, is in custody and a motive is still not known. 

One shooting took place at a mushroom farm and another near a trucking facility, approximately two miles from the farm, the San Mateo County sheriff said. 

Here’s the latest on the shooting and investigation:

This post has been updated with new details about the gunman.

The man who police said killed seven people at two Half Moon Bay locations targeted his victims, according to San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus. 

The suspect, Chunli Zhao, was taken into custody on Monday while parked at a sheriff’s substation.

One shooting unfolded at a mushroom farm and another near a trucking facility about two miles away, according to San Mateo County Board of Supervisors President Dan Pine. Officers found four victims dead and one wounded at one site and three others dead at the other, Corpus said Monday.

The mushroom farm’s owners had no past knowledge of the gunman or his motive, they said in a statement.

Children and families who were at the shooting locations are in hotels, and the county has made available grief counselors for them, she said. 

“It opens our eyes that stressors of the world get to people and sometimes people end up snapping and I think we have to really look at mental wellness for everyone in our society,” Corpus said in response to a question about this massacre on the heels of the Monterey Park mass shooting.

“This is, I think, one of these issues where someone snapped, unfortunately — and people, innocent people were killed and I think, at least here in San Mateo County, this is something that we’re going to be looking at. It’s a tragedy,” she said.  

“We have to look at it from a multi-pronged approach, because it’s not just the guns, it’s also the individuals that have access to guns and those individuals that are suffering from mental illness or mental stressors,” she added. 

There have been 39 mass shootings in the United States so far this year — putting 2023 on pace to have the most mass shootings at this point than any year on record, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA). In a three-day span, three mass shootings have taken place in California, including Monday’s shooting in Half Moon Bay.

The dangerous pace of mass shootings escalated in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and has persisted since then. Between 2019 and 2020, the total number of mass shootings each year jumped from 417 to 610. Then, 2021 became the worst year for mass shootings since GVA began tracking them in 2012, with 690 across 44 states and Washington, DC. There were 647 mass shootings in 2022.

Here’s a look at the rise of mass shootings across the years:

More on the data: CNN reports mass shootings based on data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks gun violence in the United States. CNN and the GVA define a mass shooting as a shooting that injured or killed four or more people, not including the shooter. The number of mass shootings and casualties is not exact and subject to change as reports from law enforcement, media and other sources GVA relies upon are updated and verified.

As the community in Half Moon Bay, California, reeled after the mass shooting that killed seven people on Monday, there were grief counselors present to provide emotional support, according to Ray Mueller of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

“We had grief counselors with people last night. We weren’t trying to break down what they thought of the event, we were trying to provide them emotional support,” he told CNN on Tuesday.

There were children present at the site of the shooting, and while they are “incredibly resilient,” Mueller said he spent time “playing soccer with one of them and trying to provide them with as much support as possible while we help their parents.”

The community is “just completely overcome with sadness,” he added, saying, “it is horrifying what has happened in our community.”

There has been an “outpouring of love and compassion for our community — people showing up at the shelter late in the evening, bringing blankets, bringing food, working together,” Mueller said.

Law enforcement officials work at the scene of a shooting in Half Moon Bay, California, on Monday.

The owners of a mushroom farm in an unincorporated area in San Mateo County where a gunman killed four people and wounded another before killing three more people at a nearby trucking facility said the killings have left them “shook” and that they have no past knowledge of the gunman or his motives.

In the statement, Concord Farms said it is a family-owned and operated mushroom farm that has been in its location for 37 years, It thanked the support of the community in the wake of the shooting and swift actions of law enforcement.

President Joe Biden says he is praying for the victims of the mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, California, and once again calling on Congress to “act quickly” and ban assault weapons.

“Even as we await further details on these shootings, we know the scourge of gun violence across America requires stronger action. I once again urge both chambers of Congress to act quickly and deliver this Assault Weapons Ban to my desk, and take action to keep American communities, schools, workplaces, and homes safe,” Biden added.

First responders work one of several crime scenes where multiple people were shot and killed on January 23, 2023, off state Highway 92 in Half Moon Bay, California.

Children were present at the time of a mass shooting Monday that left at least seven people dead, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said during a news conference on Monday night.

Corpus said the shooting was spread across two locations, including one where children were present, she said.

Half Moon Bay Vice Mayor Joaquin Jimenez said many family members wanted information on possible victims, but police have not publicly identified any of the victims.

Jimenez said he hopes this will be an eye-opener about gun violence in the Half Moon Bay community.

A San Mateo County sheriff deputy checks in FBI agents as they arrive at the scene of a shooting on January 23 in Half Moon Bay, California.

In an overnight statement, the city said the shooting that left seven dead “was a horrific event that has shocked our community, and our hearts go out to all individuals and families affected.”

“It’s something that we would never expect to happen here,” the city said. “We mourn the loss of those whose lives were taken by this horrendous act and send our condolences to their loved ones.” 

Mayor Deborah Penrose said she is “appalled and saddened at this terrible incident, which has completely shocked our community.”

Half Moon Bay continues to work with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office during the investigation. “The situation continues to unfold, and there is much that we simply do not know. In the coming days, as we learn more, we will come together to heal and take the necessary steps to ensuring that the safety of the community remains a top priority,” the city said.  

In an interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow, Penrose said that it’s too early to know a motive and could not provide additional information about the ongoing investigation. 

“We do know is that some of the victims were Chinese, that the perpetrator was Chinese and that this was an agricultural community — they were agricultural workers,” she said.

This undated photo provided by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Department shows Chunli Zhao. Zhao was arrested in connection with two related shootings Monday.

A sheriff’s deputy located the suspect in his vehicle in the parking lot of a sheriff’s substation in Half Moon Bay, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said at a news briefing, and he was taken into custody.

A semi-automatic handgun was found in his vehicle, she said.

The suspect in the mass shooting is believed to have acted alone and there is no further threat to the community, the sheriff said.

San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus speaks at a news conference on January 24 following a shooting Monday in Half Moon Bay, California.

The suspect in the mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, California, is “believed to be a worker” at one of the locations where people were shot, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said Monday.

Asked about what other information she could share about the suspect, she said:

Corpus added that law enforcement also believes “at this time” the semi-automatic weapon found when the suspect was detained in his vehicle was the only weapon involved in the shooting.

The suspect was identified as Chunli Zhao, a 66-year-old resident of Half Moon Bay.

Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong age for Chunli Zhao. He is 66.

Police officers detain a man, believed by law enforcement to be the Half Moon Bay mass shooting suspect, in Half Moon Bay, California, U.S., on January 23, in this screengrab taken from a social media video.

The suspect in a mass shooting that left at least seven dead has been identified as Chunli Zhao, according to San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus.

The suspect’s name was provided to CNN by San Mateo County Board of Supervisors President Dave Pine. 

Zhao is currently in the custody of the San Mateo County Sheriff.

It is unknown when he will appear in court.