On Monday, a tragic shooting occurred at a mushroom farm in San Mateo County, California. The suspect, a Chinese citizen named Zhao, was arrested roughly two hours after authorities received the first reports of the shooting. Deputies were dispatched a little after 2:20 p.m. and at roughly 4:40 p.m., the suspect was taken into custody after authorities found him in his vehicle at the parking lot of a sheriff’s office substation, the office said in a news release. A weapon was also found in his car, the release added.
The attack was a “workplace violence incident,” according to Sheriff Carlos G. Bolanos. Zhao targeted specific people and, though he had the opportunity to hurt others, “he went after and pursued” certain individuals. The suspect was a “coworker or former coworker” of the victims at each shooting site, the sheriff’s office said.
At the scene, officers found four people dead and one wounded at the mushroom farm and, moments later, found three more people dead at a separate site about 2 miles away.
During the investigation, a Mandarin language translator was used to deliver communications between the court and the suspect. Zhao will be held in custody without bail. The suspect gave a statement to the sheriff’s office after he was taken into custody, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe. That interview was also conducted through a translator who spoke Mandarin, and an attorney was not present because Zhao did not request one, the prosecutor said in a Wednesday news conference.
Many questions are still unanswered about the attack, including what could have motivated the shooting, who the victims were and why they were targeted. However, authorities have uncovered some information about the suspected gunman.
Though authorities knew of no “preceding factors” that would have suggested Zhao would carry out the attack, county officials said, it wasn’t the first time he was accused of violence against someone he worked with, court records obtained by CNN show.
Zhao was subject to a temporary restraining order after a former coworker and roommate accused him of attacking and threatening him in 2013. Yingjiu Wang, who worked with Zhao at a restaurant and lived with him in a San Jose apartment, wrote in a court declaration that Zhao’s violent behavior started after Zhao quit that job in March 2013.
According to Wang, early in the morning two days later, Zhao came into Wang’s room and asked for his salary. When Wang told him to pick it up at the restaurant, Zhao said he would kill Wang, then “took a pillow and started to cover my face and suffocate me,” Wang wrote.
“While I couldn’t (breathe), I used all my might within the few seconds to push him away with my blanket,” Wang wrote. He said he called for help and another roommate came to the door, but Zhao had allegedly locked it. The two men ended up wrestling on Wang’s bed before Zhao calmed down, according to Wang. Two days later, he wrote, Zhao threatened him again, saying “he can use a knife to cut my head if he can’t come back to work.” Wang had no control over Zhao’s work status at the restaurant, he wrote.
A judge issued a temporary restraining order against Zhao, which prevented him from getting too close to Wang and banned him from owning or buying a gun, according to the court paperwork. The restraining order expired in July 2013. An attorney for Zhao in the 2013 complaint did not respond to requests for comment and Wang could
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