(CNN) –– The suspect in a mass shooting that left seven people dead at two farms in Half Moon Bay, California, lived on the property of the first attack, where four of the victims died, a company spokesperson told CNN. Another person was seriously injured.
The site, formerly known as Mountain Mushroom Farm, was acquired by a company called California Terra Garden in March 2022, company spokesman David Oates told CNN. The land has three mobile homes and six employee trailers on the property, and the alleged attacker, Chunli Zhao, had lived there since at least the date of acquisition, he said.
Zhao started working on the farm before it was acquired by Terra Garden and was one of 35 employees, according to Oates.
“We ran background checks on all of them, and there was nothing to indicate that something like this was possible,” he said.
The farm grows mushrooms and “other food-grade herbs like basil, oregano, that sort of thing…predominantly mushrooms that are retail and wholesale,” Oates added.
The farm owners will provide bereavement professionals for all employees, Oates said. “Her goal right now is to try to bring everyone together to begin a long healing process. They consider team members like family,” he said.
“I’m still afraid… I don’t understand”: employee recounts mass shooting
An employee at the mushroom farm where the first shooting occurred described how he and other workers ran to safety when the shooter opened fire and then fled the scene in a forklift.
“I’m still scared and trying to understand what happened,” said the witness, who requested anonymity due to the ongoing police investigation. “I don’t understand”.
He said he had known the suspected perpetrator, identified by police as Chunli Zhao, 66, for regarding six years and considered him “very friendly” and “a nice guy.” He also stated that he had no idea what might have caused the fatal attack or “what was his problem with these men,” referring to the victims.
The employee told CNN that he and Zhao were co-workers at the farm and both worked on Monday.
He also added that when he heard shots he tried to hide with several of his co-workers, fearing that the shooter might start chasing them.
He then said he ran to a victim outside a greenhouse, but saw how much he was bleeding and realized “it was too late.”
He said investigators later found another victim inside the greenhouse. The two victims, the witness said, were Chinese men.
After the shooting ended, the witness saw the suspect drive away in a forklift.
According to the employee, approximately two dozen people work on the farm. About half a dozen are Chinese and the rest are Latino immigrants. He also commented that the two groups did not speak each other’s language and communicated through hand gestures or a translator.
With information from Jeff Winter.
