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CALIFORNIA: Farmworker Tells TV Station He Killed 7 On California Farms
REDWOOD CITY, California. – In a jailhouse interview on Thursday, a farmworker who is charged with killing seven current and former coworkers at two Northern California mushroom farms said that he was the one who shot and killed them.
Chunli Zhao, 66, told KNTV-TV that he wasn’t in his right mind when he entered the Half Moon Bay mushroom farm where he worked and shot and killed four people while seriously injuring a fifth. Prosecutors said he drove to a nearby farm where he previously worked and killed three more people.
According to the station, Zhao claimed he was bullied and forced to work long hours on the farms and that his complaints were ignored.
Eric Hove, one of Zhao’s lawyers, didn’t answer the phone right away when a message was left for him.
During a 15-minute interview at a county jail in Redwood City, he spoke with a television station reporter in Mandarin. Zhao stated that he has been in the United States for 11 years and has a green card. He said he has a 40-year-old daughter in China and lives in Half Moon Bay with his wife.
Purchased The Gun In California
Zhao told the station that he purchased the gun used in the killings in 2021 and encountered no problems. He was planning to turn himself into authorities when deputies apprehended him on Monday.
The shootings happened Monday at California Terra Garden, formerly Mountain Mushroom Farm, and nearby Concord Farms.
According to David Oates, a spokesman for California Terra Garden, Zhao and his wife live on the farm, and the farm has “no knowledge of any complaints by anyone on allegations of bullying.”
Zhao was charged with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder by San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe on Wednesday.
Death Penalty Or Life In Prison
The charges against Zhao include additional allegations that could result in the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole, even though Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a moratorium on executions. Zhao is accused of using a gun, causing serious bodily harm, and killing multiple people.
Zhishen Liu, 73; Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50; Aixiang Zhang, 74, of San Francisco; Qizhong Cheng, 66 ; Jingzhi Lu, 64, of Half Moon Bay; and Yetao Bing, 43, whose hometown was unknown. According to the charging documents, Jose Romero Perez was the other victim killed, and Pedro Romero Perez was the eighth victim who survived the shooting.
SOURCE – (AP)