At least seven people were shot and killed, and one person was seriously hurt, in two different places in a small coastal community in central California. This was the second mass shooting in the state in three days.
The suspect, 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, was arrested more than two hours after the shootings in Half Moon Bay on Monday. San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said that Zhao was taken into custody. Authorities think Zhao did it on his own.
“This is a devastating tragedy for this community and the families touched by this unspeakable act of violence,” Corpus said Monday night during a news conference.
At 2:22 p.m. PT, the sheriff said, deputies were told of a shooting in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County. When they got to the first site, they found four dead bodies and one injured person. Soon after, Corpus said, they found three more dead bodies at a different site.
Many recent shootings across the country, like the Monterey Park incident, have been extensively covered:
- 72-year-old Monterey Park Shooting Suspect Dies of Self-inflicted Gunshot
- Who Was Huu Can Tran? Suspect in California Monterey Park Shooting Alleged Suicide
Dave Pine, President of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, told CNN earlier that one shooting happened at a mushroom farm and another near a trucking facility, about two miles from the farm.
Corpus said that at 4:40 p.m., a sheriff’s deputy found the suspect in his car in the parking lot of a sheriff’s substation in Half Moon Bay. He was arrested without any trouble. She said that at that time, a semiautomatic handgun was found in his car.
“This kind of shooting is horrific,” Corpus said at the news conference. “It’s a tragedy that we hear about far too often but today has hit home here in San Mateo County.”
The sheriff said they don’t know what the motive was yet, but they think the suspect did it alone and that the community isn’t in danger.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he was meeting with victims of the mass shooting in Monterey Park when he was “pulled away to be briefed about another shooting. This time in Half Moon Bay.”
At the hospital meeting with victims of a mass shooting when I get pulled away to be briefed about another shooting. This time in Half Moon Bay.
Tragedy upon tragedy.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 24, 2023
“Tragedy upon tragedy,” Newsom tweeted.
On the weekend, 11 people were shot and killed in Monterey Park. According to information on the city’s website, Half Moon Bay is about 28 miles south of San Francisco and is in the western part of San Mateo County.
Shooting in Half Moon Bay, California leaves at least 7 people dead, 1 injured, and 1 suspect in arrest. More than two hours after the shootings on Monday in Half Moon Bay, the suspect, 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, was arrested… What are your opinions on the growing number of shootings like the ones that happened recently in Monterey Park?
