Half Moon Bay Mass Shooting Suspect Due In Court Thursday

REDWOOD CITY, CA — A man accused of killing seven people and critically wounding another last month in a mass shooting at two Half Moon Bay farms is expected to issue a plea Thursday.

Chunli Zhao, 66, was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in connection with the Jan. 23 shooting, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Zhao remains in custody without bail. If convicted, he faces life without parole, or the death penalty.

Zhao made his first court appearance Jan. 23 but did not issue a plea. His arraignment was continued to Thursday.

The shooting followed a dispute over a $100 Zhao was told he had to pay to repair farm equipment after he was involved in a collision that involved a bulldozer and a forklift, NBC Bay Area reports.

The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office identified six of the seven Half Moon Bay fatalities as Yetao Bing, 43 (unknown residence), Qizhong Cheng, 66 of Half Moon Bay, Marciano Martinez Jimenez, 50 (Moss Beach), Jingzhi Lu, 64 (Half Moon Bay), Zhishen Liu, 73 (San Francisco), and Aixiang Zhang, 74 (San Francisco).

Jose Romero Perez, a man his late 30s, was identified as the seventh victim by The Mercury News and a GoFundMe.

This will be Zhao’s third court appearance.

He appeared at a hearing Friday in which Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Lee granted Zhao’s attorney’s request for a gag order. The order precludes prosecutors, defense attorneys, the defendant and the Sheriff’s Office from discussing the facts of the case publicly, except for court dates, court proceedings, and court rulings.

Lee at Friday’s hearing denied a second defense motion requesting a ban on cameras in the courtroom but granted a third defense motion precluding remote access to online court records of proceedings in this case.