California’s Half Moon Bay: Two days after 11 people were slain in another mass shooting in Monterey Park, two connected shootings that shook the beachside neighborhood of Half Moon Bay have left at least seven people dead.

One of the victims was shot in front of neighboring kids who had just gotten out of school by a 67-year-old resident accused of opening fire at two isolated places approximately a mile apart.

Sheriff Christina Corpus of San Mateo County remarked, “This kind of incident is awful; it’s a tragedy we hear about too often.” “It is unimaginable that youngsters would see this.”

Two hours after the gunshots, as he sat in a parked car at a sheriff’s substation, the suspect—who is thought to be a worker at one of the surrounding farms or nurseries—was taken into custody.

Officials stated that the victims may also have been farmworkers at neighboring farms.

Just before 2:30 p.m., deputies from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office discovered four victims who had been shot to death in the 12700 block of San Mateo Road in an unincorporated section of the county. The sheriff’s office reported in a statement to authorities that a fifth person was also discovered nearby and was transferred to Stanford Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

Deputies discovered three additional victims dead from what appeared to be gunshot wounds a short time later in the 2100 block of Cabrillo Highway, a location approximately a mile distant.

According to Corpus, it is thought that the culprit shot the unnamed victims at each place as he drove between them.

Sheriff’s officials stated in a statement that no motive has been established for the shootings.

According to authorities, Chunli Zhao, the shooting suspect, was seen sitting in his car at the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office substation in Half Moon Bay at around 4:40 p.m.

Deputies can be seen putting a man to the ground in the parking lot in a video from another channel. The man was dressed in a crimson long-sleeve shirt, a vest, and a white cap.

His automobile had a semiautomatic handgun, which is the weapon thought to have been used in the event.

Aaron Tung, Concord Farms’ principal, said in a statement to The Times that his school was shaken and eager to learn more from the authorities and their investigations because they had no prior knowledge of the shooter or his motivations. On Cabrillo Highway, where one of the gunshots occurred, a mushroom field is run by Concord Farms.

The Chinese American community, from Half Moon Bay to Monterey Park, as well as the victims’ families, are in our thoughts, Tung continued.

The Half Moon Bay-based San Mateo County nonprofit organization Ayudando Latinos a Soar was founded by Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, who also serves as its executive director. Farmworkers there are assisted by the group. She stated that the ALAS team, which offers social, mental health, and educational services, was on the Mountain Mushroom Farm, close to one of the shooting locations, about an hour before the incident. There are farmworkers there, according to her, who speak Spanish and Mandarin.

Her words were, “Our farmworkers contribute so much to us, and to see this brutality happening is just a tragedy.

Assisting people in need, Hernandez-Arriaga was at the family reunion center the Sheriff’s Office put up on Main Street in Half Moon Bay on Monday night.

She remarked, emphasizing “the impact this is going to have on our life,” that “we are all here waiting to hear who were the victims.”

She remarked that “our little community has always been so safe and so protected.”

Supervisor Ray Mueller of San Mateo County was also present on Monday evening. According to Mueller, he saw one family learn that a member of theirs was one of the victims. He calculated that there were 30 to 40 people at the center as of 7:30 p.m., many of whom were seeking treatment.

In less than two weeks, there have been three mass shootings in California: the murder of six people at a residence in Goshen, California; the shooting at a dance studio in Monterey Park; and, most recently, the event in Half Moon Bay.

Supervisor David Canepa of San Mateo County described the situation as “tragic on many levels.” It is “horrific that it’s a Lunar New Year [and] you have individuals massacred both in Monterey Park and in the Half Moon Bay region,” he said, noting that the dead were Chinese farm workers. Due to gun violence, we find ourselves burying innocent individuals when we should be celebrating.

President of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors David Pine acknowledged the tragedy that occurred in Monterey Park on Saturday and added, “Gun violence in this country has reached unacceptable proportions.” Our hearts are torn apart.

The 2021 incident, in which a worker for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority shot and killed nine coworkers at a light rail yard, surpassed the Half Moon Bay shootings as the bloodiest in the San Francisco Bay Area in recent memory.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, condemned the killings on Twitter and wrote: “Tragedy upon tragedy.” Federal agencies were providing help, according to President Biden’s spokesperson.

The level of violence in California was highlighted by Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) as follows: On Twitter, he wrote, “Two hours ago I joined my colleagues on the Capitol steps for a vigil for the victims of the tragedy at Monterey Park.” “Another mass shooting occurs, this time at Half Moon Bay before we had time to mourn for them. within my district.

Authorities stated that the suspect was assisting authorities and expressed hope that they would soon have a clearer understanding of what took place.

The neighborhood and the families affected by this horrifying act of violence are experiencing a tremendous tragedy, according to Corpus.

Many people in the rural area south of San Francisco were still processing what had transpired.

“We have no idea what the motivation was. “All I know is that someone is not well if they can kill someone,” Hernandez-Arriaga added.