Tragedy Roils Half Moon Bay, AAPI Communities

HALF MOON BAY, CA — Gov. Gavin Newsom was comforting victims of the Monterey Park shooting at a Southern California hospital Monday afternoon when the news broke that another such incident just happened.

This time, seven people were killed and an eighth person was critically injured in shootings at two locations in Half Moon Bay. The Monterey Park shooting killed 11.

“At the hospital meeting with victims of a mass shooting when I get pulled away to be briefed about another shooting. This time in Half Moon Bay,” Newsom tweeted.

“Tragedy upon tragedy.”

The latest tragedy has struck a quiet San Mateo County coastal community of around 11,000 about 30 miles south of San Francisco known to the world mostly for giant pumpkin contests and one of the world's most prolific surfing competitions.

At least before this.

"It's a tragedy that we hear about far too often, but today it's hit home here in San Mateo County," San Mateo County's newly elected Sheriff Christina Corpus said Monday evening during a press conference.

The suspect, identified as Chunli Zhao, 67, of Half Moon Bay, was taken into custody in the Sheriff's substation's parking lot in Half Moon Bay where he was sitting in his car, presumably to turn himself in, Corpus said. His arrest was captured on video.

The shootings occurred at Mountain Mushroom Farm at 12761 San Mateo Road (Highway 92) and the Concord Farms at 2125 Cabrillo Highway South (Highway 1). Corpus confirmed Zhao was an employee at the farm during a news conference on Tuesday and said that was the only connection investigators have found between the suspect and victims so far.

Deputies responded at 2:22 p.m. to the San Mateo Road location on the report of a shooting and found four people dead and another critically injured, Corpus said. The injured victim was hospitalized.

Three people were found dead at the Cabrillo Highway South location. It is not yet known which shooting occurred first.

Farm workers and their families live at the mushroom farm and children may have been present at the shooting, Corpus said.

"This is a devastating tragedy for this community and the many families touched by this unspeakable act of violence," Corpus said.

A semiautomatic handgun was found in Zhao's vehicle, Corpus said.

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The tragedy has struck a coastal community that was one of the Bay Area's hardest hit by a series of powerful winter storms.

Highway 92, the main artery between Half Moon Bay and the rest of the Bay Area, had been closed since a storm triggered a massive sinkhole. It wasn’t until over the weekend that the road reopened with a two-way traffic control.

It is the second unspeakable crime that’s occurred in the region in recent months. In September, 27-year old Karina Castro was beheaded, and her ex-boyfriend Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta, 33, was arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with her killing.

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Although there is no indication that the Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park mass shootings are in any way connected, by Monday evening it was already apparent that the circumstances were hauntingly similar.

Both cases involve elderly Asian male suspects who hunted down victims who were all also of Asian descent.

The shootings occurred less than 48 hours apart, around the time of the Lunar New Year celebrations.

The shootings have hit an Asian American and Pacific Islanders community already besieged by the rise of anti-Asian hate in recent years.

The rise in anti-Asian hate, largely fueled by COVID-19 misinformation, prompted the Department of Justice in 2021 to enact the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, a measure that aimed to raise awareness of hate crimes during the pandemic.

Anti-Asian hate crimes surged 164 percent during the first year of the pandemic, according to a study conducted by Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

San Francisco experienced a 567 percent year-over-year spike in anti-Asian incidents from nine in 2020 to 60 the next year, The Guardian reports.

After years of experiencing an external threat, the AAPI community now finds itself confronting a new threat from within.

That the dual tragedies occurred at a time when the Golden State is officially commemorating the Lunar New Year as a state holiday for the first time in California history.

“Unfortunately, this has been taken away from us,” Assemblymember Evan Low told NBC Bay Area.

“We’re dealt with addressing this stark reality that of firearms devastating our community, so of course this has an impact on the psyche and the spirit of us as an AAPI community.”

“Will we be able to be safe and comfortable in the coming weeks with respect to Lunar New Year gatherings in the Bay Area?”