Police: N. California shooting could be linked to workplace dispute
Los Angeles, Jan 24 (EFE).- US authorities think that the mass shooting that left seven people dead near a farm in Half Moon Bay, California, occurred due to a labor dispute in which the shooter attacked his workmates.
“The only connection between the suspects and the victims is that they may have been co-workers. All of the evidence we have points to this being an instance of workplace violence,” said San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus at a press conference on Tuesday.
Seven people died and one was serious injured on Monday in two mass shootings in the agricultural community of Half Moon Bay, 19 kilometers (14 miles) south of San Francisco, where a mushroom farm and a greenhouse are located.
Four people were found dead near the farm and the other three were found at a nearby site.
According to county law enforcement officials, the eighth victim was transported to the closest hospital and remains in serious condition.
The suspect, identified as Zhao Chunli, a 67-year-old man, drove to the parking lot of one of the Sheriff’s Department offices in Half Moon Bay, turned himself in and was arrested minutes after the attacks.
Authorities say that he acted alone and found a semiautomatic pistol registered in Zhao’s name inside his vehicle.
Minors were witnesses to the attack, given that several families live on the farm, police said at a Monday press conference.
“For children to witness this is unspeakable,” said Corpus.
The Half Moon Bay attack comes after another California mass shooting Saturday night in the Los Angeles County city of Monterrey Park left 11 people dead at a dance hall during Chinese New Year celebrations.
On Monday, yet another mass shooting took place at a gasoline station in Oakland, California, in the San Francisco Bay area, leaving one person dead and seven wounded.
The “Golden State” has some of the strictest laws and regulations on the sale and use of firearms. To buy a pistol, a person must be 21, pass a gun safety test, provide valid identification and file a request to buy it with the Department of Justice.
The US West Coast also experienced another shooting on Tuesday at a food store in Yakima, Washington, where at least three people lost their lives.
During the first 24 days of 2023, there have been at least 39 mass shootings in 18 different US states, according to figures compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organization that tallies incidents of armed violence around the country.
EFE –/bp
