Newsman: Five men and two women were killed and another man was injured in Monday’s shootings in Half Moon Bay. The attack left residents in the Northern California town grieving just days after a gunman opened fire at a dance studio in Monterey Park on Saturday. That attack left 11 dead and nine injured in the Southern California city. Residents of two separate communities in California are now reeling after two mass shootings in three days that have claimed the lives of 18 people and injured 10 more.
“Only in America do we see this kind of carnage,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said during that news conference. He said earlier that he was with victims of the Monterey Park attack when he was pulled away to be briefed on the second incident in Half Moon Bay.
Newsom called for action on gun violence and criticized politicians, mainly Republicans, for not doing more
Vice President Kamala Harris is heading to Monterey Park on Wednesday to meet the community.
The two mass shootings just hundreds of miles apart but share devastating similarities. Both alleged shooters were men of Asian descent over age 60. In the Half Moon Bay shootings, police said the victims were both Asian and Hispanic farmworkers. Nearly all the victims of the Monterey Park attack appear to be of Asian descent.
Authorities described the deadly shootings in Half Moon Bay as potentially a “work place incident.”
Eight people were shot at two different mushroom farms: Mountain Mushroom Farm, where the alleged shooter was an employee, and Concord Farms, according to KQED.
The first shooting happened at 2:22 p.m. PT, police said. The suspect, Chunli Zhao, was arrested at a sheriff’s office just hours later.
The 67-year-old reportedly parked his car at the police station. A deputy recognized his car from a description issued earlier, and he was arrested at gunpoint in the parking lot. Police said they found a legally purchased semi-automatic handgun in Zhao’s vehicle.
The motive for the shootings is still unknown, as authorities offered no new information on Tuesday. Not much is known about Zhao.
Half Moon Bay is a close-knit community known for its ranching, farming and fishing, officials said in a news briefing Tuesday. That sense of security and closeness was shattered with Monday’s tragedy.
Officials in Half Moon Bay were gathering for a news conference Tuesday afternoon while reports of a shooting in Yakima, Wash., started to make headlines.
In a meeting with Democratic congressional leaders in Washington, D.C., President Biden said, “Our hearts are with the people of California.”
“I just got back from spending time with Gavin Newsom on the floods and the devastation that occurred. And then, on top of that, you see what’s happened in California and what’s happened to the Asian American community. It’s been devastating,” Biden said.
He called on lawmakers to bring Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban to his desk to sign.
On Tuesday, police continued investigating the Monterey Park shooting and the man who police say is responsible for the tragedy at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio there.
Investigators served a search warrant at the home of the deceased suspected gunman, Huu Can Tran. The 72-year-old kept hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a rifle and material to make homemade suppressors at his Hemet home, police said.
Investigators uncovered a handgun inside the van in which the suspect shot himself following an hours’ long search, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
Investigators are still looking into where the suspect may have gotten his guns from. They indicated he was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm in the 1990s.
