Police in California believe the same suspect they have arrested shot seven people dead at two sites on Monday afternoon
ADVERTISEMENTThere's been another mass shooting in California.
Officials said seven people were killed in two related shootings Monday afternoon at agricultural facilities in a California coastal community south of San Francisco.
Four people were found dead and a fifth injured from gunshot wounds at one location, and three others were found dead at another several miles away, the San Mateo County Sheriff's office said, adding that police arrested the suspect.
He is 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, who police believe is a worker at one of the facilities in question.
The shootings took place on the outskirts of Half Moon Bay, a city about 30 miles (48km) south of San Francisco.
Sheriff Christina Corpus said they said officials hadn't determined a motive for the shooting, though the county Board of Supervisors President Dave Pine described the suspect as a “disgruntled worker."
The shooting was the nation’s sixth mass shooting this year — and followed the killing of 11 people late Saturday at a ballroom dance hall in Southern California.
In a news release, officials said that after around two hours of first responding to the reports of the shootings a sheriff’s deputy found the suspect, Zhao, in his car at a sheriff’s station in Half Moon Bay.
He was taken into custody and a weapon was found in his vehicle. The sheriff’s department believes he acted alone.
“We’re still trying to understand exactly what happened and why, but it’s just incredibly, incredibly tragic,” said state Sen. Josh Becker, who represents the area and called it “a very close-knit” agricultural community.
Aerial television images showed police officers collecting evidence from a farm with dozens of greenhouses.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted that he was "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. Tragedy upon tragedy."